A Fading Hope
by Hedgi
Summary: Second in the History Repeats series. TK's nightmares worsen as an old foe returns from the past to threaten all he holds dear. The reason behind the attacks and the only hope they have of saving the Digiworld lies in a strange prophecy - and history seems to be repeating. With Devimon on the rise and danger closing in, can the digidestined survive? Or will all be lost?
1. Prologue: The Hanging Gale

**AN: Hi! I know, it's been, what, 8 months since A Captive Light? What could be my excuse for not writing anything more than a few oneshots? School, was I sick? No and no. I was lazy. But now I do have this story for you. I'd suggest you go read A Captive Light if you haven't read it already, as this is kind of the sequel. A few things about this story- It's set AFTER Ken has renounced his Emperor ways, but before Arukenimon and Mummymon start doing their thing, and before Ken joins the DD. Also, as I have just started college ( AHHH!), I might be a bit slow to update. I'm going to try for once every three weeks, once a month at the longest, but School might make that hard. I Promise to do my best through, and I'll always respond to PMs, Reviews and Emails, ( I love hearing from you all.)**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Digimon, I wouldn't be working my way through College would I? No, no I wouldn't.**

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><p><em>All the way, all the way<em>

_Go batten your doors _

_there's a hanging gale just off the shore _

_but it's not the wind or the rain_

_that you've got in store..._

_~ The Hanging Gale_

Prolougue

The Shadow waits in the darkness, invisible, hiding. No, not Hiding. He is done Hiding. He is waiting now, but not forever. Not for much longer. He grows, gathering energy and gathering shadows, inky tendrils, darkness itself into his form. He was foolish, not ready the last time. The madness of centuries in between the worlds, the hundreds of worlds, has shaped his will, his goal. Too soon after, he tried. That too was foolishness, an error. It nearly cost him everything. He will not make that mistake again. He is almost ready, stronger now, stronger than ever before.

Drenched with power, with dark energy, he waits. Not sitting, not standing, simply there, filling the cave, his home, at the top of the monument, the mountain named for forevers. Forevers under _his_ rein. It is a good throne, the tallest peak in all the digital lands. One who joined him in the darkness that was bright, the Emptyness between worlds, told him of another, taller even than the Infinite mountain. But that spire, the spiraling, twisted darkness faded away, destroyed. The Shadow does not care- his palace of dark and evil will stand longer, will stand forever, as the name states. There is no need for spiraling towers, not in his Dominion. His home, for eons before the Chosen came, and in the eons to come, has been, will always be this dark cave, the tunnels that borrow into the mountain's center, the ruins at the base, and those at the highest point of the mountain, the Summit of Infinity. He might rule over all the known lands of this world, but the seat of his power would remain here. Here, where he began his quest, Where he formed the Gears and shaped the wills of other digimon to his. Where the Chosen stopped him once...

The Shadow, the monster, the darkness within the darkness curses. All the forevers would have been his, the forevers of yesterdays, but for the child. In the blackness, he can see the writing on the wall, for he is blackness too.

The writing was the first that he saw, the last thing that he saw before he faced them, before the light, the light that was darkness, swallowed him whole, glowing in his mind. It tells him, spells out what he will face. The Small one, the Smallest of the Chosen, the one who can defeat him, the only one. The others, the other chosen... the Shadow laughs, a grating sound, a cold sound. The others will be the pawns. Only the Smallest matters to the Shadow's survival. Without the Chosen of the Chosen, the few that remain could not hope to triumph. This the Shadow knows in his core, as surely as he knows his identity.

He is the Dark one, the King of Night, the ruler of the digital world. The Small One's Bright Power had slowed him, not stopped him. He had faltered, not failed. He will rise now, stronger than before. The Small one will lose this round, this battle, this war. More than File Island, More than this mountain, More even than the single digital world- his, once the Chosen few are gone. It will not be difficult, the Shadow knows. Only one can fight _him_, and that one, the Small one... fear takes hold for a moment in the Shadow's being. Not his heart, for he has none, but his very being. The Prophecy, the words on the wall are not clear. What if- no. He is stronger now. Strong enough. And he has been planning. All there is in the place between is plan, to stave off the Madness. Plan and count and draw strength and plan. It is what he has done for so long, and now it is almost ready.

The Small one will not, can not win this time, not with so much darkness to face. Not with so much darkness inside. The darkness will find away, the Shadow knows. All it will take is a push. A shove. A circle of darkness into, around the Small one's heart. Humans- children- are so weak. So unprepared for what is to come. The darkness will win, as it always does. The Small one will suffer, will plead for the end before it comes, trapped in the darkness within. Perfect, the Shadow thinks. The Time is right. The Time is Now.

The Shadow, the Demon Digimon King, lifts his hands, sending out a volley of black, toothy gears from where they have waited for their Master to return. They scattered, across a blue sky unseen by the Shadow in his lair. For the briefest of seconds, the cloud of gears blotted out all light on the mountain top, before speeding away.

Devimon, the Shadow, laughs again. The Small one cannot stop him now. And none but the Smallest ever could, not forever. Only the Smallest and the Smallest's Brightness could match him. But the Brightness will fall as the Small one falls, forever. Soon, all will be darkness. And all darkness will be his.

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><p><strong>Yeah, I know it was short, sorry. The chapters will be longer, don't worry! What did you think? I decided to experiment with writing styles for this opening, but the rest of the story will be closer to A Captive Light than this was! now, review and make this homesick college kid feel good!<strong>

**~HNA**


	2. Shadows and Sunlight

**A/N : Wow, that was fast, huh? Ok, here's the deal. This isn't going to be like last time, where you wait three weeks and get 3-5 thousand words. Sometimes you'll wait a month and get something that long, sometimes you'll wait a week and get something only six or seven hundred words long. And It'll vary. Don't think you'll get a handful of super long ones at the very end. i'm in the process of breaking up the story into chapters now- putting the breaks where they'll have the most emotional impact, on account of i'm just evil. It'll also depend on my work load in school. I'll try to post short chapter between either really long or really emotionally draining chapters :)**

**Disclaimer: Another birthday has come and I still don't own Digimon. I own a Patamon button, and a ceramic necklace with the Crest of Hope on it, but that's about it.**

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><p>What lies behind you?<p>

What secrets do you hide?

What are those voices

There on the other side?

I can still hear them

Meaningless whispering

They're here, all around me.

~ Beyond the Veil

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><p>Chapter One: Shadows and Sunlight<p>

Everything was dark. It was not the dark of night, even in the digital world where the only light came from the stars, the ever full moon, or, in the worst times, the far of bursts of light as digimon fought. This blackness was complete. It was cold and thick, close like a blanket around him, suffocating. everything was silent and still, and he could not move, could not speak. Terror filled him, pouring from something unseen ahead. He looked around, desperate to see something, anything, even a patch of darker darkness where he knew his hand was. He hated the dark, hated not being able to see what was around him, hated knowing that danger lurked and he was at its mercy.

He tried to speak, tried to move, but his legs refused to budge. There, out of the inky mist came a light- not so much a light as something lighter, grey in the blackness. The shape was unmistakable, even though Patamon's orange and white fur was dulled by the night's gloom. He reached out to reach his friend, but his hands would not move, his voice would not shadows twisted, darkness on darkness, parting to reveal another shape, just as familiar. How could he see the silhouette, the shadow that had played against the cliff face as he'd tried to run, the tattered wings and curved horns, and not recognize it?

After all, it had haunted his nightmares for years.

There was light, real light now and brightness exploding outward. He cried out, at last his voice freed, hoarse as if he'd been screaming for hours. The light died away, and TK was alone in the darkness again, alone but for the Voice. The Voice that he had heard so often, taunting him, laughing, then reaching out with dark hands, squeezing, pressure, pain and then...

T.K. woke with a start, gasping. Sunlight was streaming through his window. Patamon was curled up on his pillow like a cat, peaceful in slumber. "Just a dream," he breathed, running a hand through messy blond hair. "That's all. It's not real." Glancing at the clock, TK saw it was quarter past seven- earlier than he usually woke, even for a school day. Still there was no point in going back to sleep at this point. As he eased out from under his bedspread, Patamon opened one eye sleepily. " Teekaay? It's too early to be awake."

TK laughed as he pulled on his favorite yellow tee-shirt. He paused, the dream- it had been only a dream, was still fresh in his mind. He always remembered his dreams. There had been laughter in the dream, in a lot of the dreams he'd had in the last few weeks. It had always been His laughter. Devimon's. TK swallowed the lump in his throat.

" Patamon, it's not that early, the alarm would have gone off in half an hour anyway."

"But you never wake up this early! And that's" Patamon thought for a second, " 30 whole minutes. That's a long time." The little Digimon stretched, half-flying, half jumping to land on the bedside dresser. " The last time you woke up early for no reason was-" Patamon frowned. " TK, did you have another nightmare?"

TK put down the Maths textbook he was trying to cram into his backpack. " Yeah," he sighed. " Look, it was... it was nothing, ok? Just a bad dream. Everyone gets them."

"Teekaay, you always say that. Are you going to tell me what it was about this time? You've woken up in the middle of the night every night for the past week, said it was a bad dream, and gone back to sleep! Don't tell me it's nothing, I'm your partner! I'm your friend." Patamon fluttered over to land on the Maths book, clearly not about to let it go.

TK hesitated, then nodded. " It's alway the same dream. I've had it for a while. Since I was a kid. After...Infinity Mountain. At first, it wasn't too often. I guess there was so much else to survive. And when they started getting worse- they were just dreams. I didn't want to disturb anyone- yeah, they scare me, but..." he trailed off. " It's always the same dream, like I said. It's dark, and I'm trapped, and I start to see Devimon." At the mention of the digimon that had deleted him, Patamon flinched. TK stopped there. It was only a bad dream, anyway, if a recurring one. " and then I wake up."

Patamon looked solemn. " TK, I think you need to tell the others. Really, I do. You've been having the same dream for years? I don't know much about humans, but I'm telling ya, that is not "just a dream". In the Digital world, Dreams like that mean something, and you're a part of the Digital world, same as me. It might be," the orange bat-pig gulped, "some kind of warning. Devimon created those Gears, and if the Zhannemon can set them off by mistake, so could someone else. Ken might not be the Digital Emperor anymore, but that doesn't mean there isn't any evil left in the Digiworld."

" Patamon," TK sighed, knowing he was losing the argument, "I ... I need that textbook."

" You need to tell them. I've got a feeling, TK. Those dreams mean something, I can feel it."

"I'm not a psychic, Pata," TK retorted. " Seeing the future in dreams- that stuff only happen in fantasy novels."

" TK, you've been transported to a world made of data, been part of two groups of chosen ones, and are talking to- oh, what did Tentomon call it?- a Quantal materializwhatsit of Data parta-Oh forget it. A Digimon. I can fly. I'm not a super-genius or anything, but I'm pretty sure that your life counts as fantasy novel."

TK had to admit, Patamon had a point there.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The alarm clock rang out, jolting them both. How had half an hour gone by so quickly?

" Fine," TK said tersely. "I'll talk to the others. But-"

" 'But it's just a dream', I know. Still, what if it's not? Do you want to take that chance?"

TK grabbed his white hat, draped over his desk lamp, and put it on. "I know, I know. You're right, Patamon. It's just... Well, embarrassing." His shoulders fell. " I feel like- like I have to be stronger than nightmares. It was hard enough for them to start treating me like a 'big kid', like I could take care of myself , back during our first adventure, and after what happened two months ago...I dunno. "

Patamon sighed and launched himself up and on to TK's hat, tipping it forward.

"TK, no one's gonna think any less of you," he began.( TK coughed, but the cough sounded strangely like "Davis".)

" After all, Gatomon had nightmares for ages, and no one thought she was a crybaby or a wimp or whatever you're afraid of. You're both strong members of the team, and I think you need to tell someone. I bet Izzy could figure it out. Just tell Izzy, alright? For me, TK?"

TK brightened. If anyone could convince Patamon that they were just- if chillingly lifelike- dreams, it would be Izzy. " I'll right, I'll talk to him. But unless Izzy thinks they might mean something, that's it, deal?"

"TK, if you don't eat breakfast soon you won't have time to!" TK's mother called from the kitchen of their apartment.

" Deal," Patamon said as TK shoved the last of his books into his backpack. The digimon sniffed the air. " Is that French Toast? I hope your mom saved some for me!"

And with that, the two left for breakfast, leaving the behind the concerns and nightmares- at least for the moment.

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><p><strong>And... there. yes, I know, it wasn't very long. or as... dramatic as my chapter endings usually are. Don't worry, the next chapter will be very exciting. And dramatic. And may have an explosion or two.<strong>

**Review! Reviews are the best birthday gifts ever. Plus, this is my first birthday away from home. So Review. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't, what you thought worked, what you want more of, make predictions of what unspeakable terror I'm going to inflict on our beloved characters, stuff like that. :) you know you want to.**


	3. Flight of Gears

**Good to see you, my readers! I just thought I'd let you know that if all goes to plan- and by that I mean my Plotmon don't show up while I'm taking an exam and tell me, " hey, you, this story's great, but why not do ( insert something both epic and terrible here) instead?"- than this story will have 20 chapters! Some will be rather short, others quite long- I've got them all planned out, barring the Plotmon suddenly showing up and telling me how to do something better. In other news, my roommates are all really cool, and three of us sat around and watched digimon the other day. We're working our way through season one, one episode a night. BEST ROOMIES EVER!**

**Disclaimer: I own digimon. Yep, I do. I got the certificate and everything. Of course, then my alarm clock started blaring and I had to go to history... It does not do to dwell in dreams, I guess. Enjoy!**

_Here we are, going far_

_to save all that we Love_

_If we give all we've got_

_we will make it through_

_here we are, like a star_

_shining bright on the world, today_

_make evil go away._

_~A World Without Danger_

_Chapter Two: Flight of Gears_

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><p>As the hallways began to clear after the last bell of the afternoon, TK made his way from the school gym, where Patamon and Gatomon had taken to relaxing during school hours. The high beams and closed off sections under the bleachers not only made perfect places for hiding, but decent places for naps, or, in the event of Patamon sleeping through the night, a place to talk or quietly spar.<p>

By the time he'd collected Patamon- Gatomon having already left by way of a perpetually propped open door to greet Kari after the girl's last class- PE, held outside when the weather was fair- and gotten back up the two flights of stairs to the computer lab, the others had mostly arrived. Cody was helping Yolei divide the snacks she'd brought from her family store among the bouncing digimon, while Matt was trying to explain one of Davis's maths problems to the young gogglehead. ( It was going about as well as explaining a math problem to one of the smaller digimon- except that digimon at least thought " Human Stuff" was cool, for the most part. Davis, not so much)

Kari closed the door behind her, her cheeks red from running. Gatomon was only a pace behind her, licking a paw. " Sorry I'm late!" the girl apologized. " is everyone else here?"

T.K looked around the room. "Wait, where's Izzy?" The redhead usually joined them on trips to the Digital world, mostly to work on his pet project, a topographical, 3D map of the entire Digital world. It was slow going, but Izzy had been working on it for months. Besides that, even with Ken, the former Digimon Emperor, out of the picture, the Digital World still held many dangers, and it never hurt to have someone who knew the terrain around.

" He's got a big chemistry test tomorrow," Matt said, looking up from the Maths book. "And he got so much done on that map yesterday, he said to go on without him."

"Yes!" Davis slammed the textbook shut. " I'm sick of homework, lets go!" he reached into his pant's pocket and pulled out his digivice, holding it up to the nearest computer.

" Digiport, Open!"

They landed along the shore of a lake, bigger than the one near Primary village, so large that they couldn't see the other side. Three spires were visible- one along the sand, rather far away, one next to an abandoned pier, jutting into the sill lake, and a third half hidden in the trees opposite the shore. There was something else in the trees to, something very familiar, although neither Matt nor TK could quite put a finger on it.

"Hey!" squeaked Patamon. " Look! It's a-"

"ROLLER COASTER!" Davis and Yolei cheered.

"Davish?" Veemon asked, tugging at his partner's pant leg. "What's a roller coaster?"

"You'll see, come on buddy!"

"Davis!" Cody said, eyes bright. " focus! It can wait, we have a job to do first, _remember?_"

Davis' shoulders slumped. "You're right. Let's do this. Then we ride the roller coaster."

Matt smiled, shaking hi head. "Alright gang, let's take care of these control spires. Then, I don't see why not. We've taken down, what, a hundred spires in the last month."

"Gomamon said it was one hundred and ten, as of last night." Gabumon offered. " He says Joe's been counting."

"That sounds like our Joe, alright." Gatomon laughed.

"Come on!" Yolei said, tapping a foot. " I want to go on the ferris wheel!" Already she held her Digivice and D-terminal aloft. The others( sans Matt) followed suit.

"_**DigiArmour Energize!"**_ they shouted together.

Light surrounded the five digimon.

**Gatomon ArmourDigivolve to...Nefertimon!**

**Patamon ArmourDigivolve to...Pegasusmon!**

**Veemon ArmourDigivolve to... Raidramon**

**Hawkmon ArmourDigivolve to...Shurimon!**

**Armadillomon ArmourDigivolve to... Digmon!**

T.K and Kari hopped onto their digimon's backs. "We'll take the one by the pier" Kari offered. With a nod from Matt, they took to the sky.

"Cody, how about you and I take that one?" Matt asked the smaller boy, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the spire in the treetops. Cody nodded. "Sounds good to me. Let's go, Digmon."

Yolei and Davis looked at each other and at the spire a ways down the beach. They shrugged.

"I bet you a soda pop I get there and take out the spire before you." Davis smirked, vaulting onto Raidramon's back.

"Ha! Not a chance, you're on!" Yolei cried, her purple hair flying as she shook her head violently.

"On your mark!" Shurimon gathered her up in his arms.

"Get set!" Raidramon growled happily. He loved running, and racing Shurimon was always fun.

" Go!" they cried together, and tore across the sand.

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><p>"<strong>Golden Noose!"<strong>

Wrapping the base of the spire, the light-rope tightened as Nefertimon and Pegasusmon pulled, flapping their wings as hard as they could. with a mighty _crack_, it broke and fell, crashing into the water. The splash drenched the digimon and their human partners. "Ahh!" cried Kari, laughing.

Nefertimon was less than amused. " I _hate _water. Remind me of that next time, won't you?"

In the distance, the other two spires crumbled, accompanied by bursts of light and smoke.

Landing on the creaking wooden boards, the Pegasus and Sphinx digimon reverted to their normal forms. Gatomon shook out her still sopping white fur and promptly began to groom herself.

Patamon looked out across the water, a puzzled look on his face. " TKay? I..I _Remember_ this place."

TK looked at his feet, at the weather beaten pier. There it was, faint, but there. The place where he'd chipped his own name with a bit of rock. " So do I."

It had been years ago, during the first time he'd been to Digiworld. After Tai had vanished, gone into some kind of vortex. After Sora had gone, left in the middle of the night. After Joe had left. And Mimi. And Izzy. After Matt had gone away, and he'd been alone with just Togemon. He'd sat on that pier for hours, days.. had it been weeks?

It had been terrible, being alone. T.K shivered slightly.

"It's pretty here," Kari commented, interrupting the silence. " The water's so bright."

her friend nodded.

"Let's go back," TK said. " davis and Yolei are probably already at that park.

"Wanna race?" a now considerably less wet( and slightly fluffy) Gatomon asked Patamon, her head tilted playfully to one side. Patamon pumped his wings. " Last one there's a rotten Digiegg!" the two sped off, leaving Kari and T.K to chase after them.

The park was almost the same as t had been. That was wrong. It had been so long- hundreds of Digi-years passed before the times became stable, while the kids had fought on Earth. Hundreds of Digi-years had to have gone by since T.K had been there, yet the Amusement park was not rusted or faded, or crumbling either. It was clean and bright, the only signs of age being some faded paint and the weathered wooden benches, boardwalks and stalls- and the emptiness.

"Hey, little brother, what took ya so long?" Matt asked, clapping a hand on TK's shoulder.

"The spire gave us a little water show," Kari giggled shaking her head. Matt winced as TK did the same, water droplets hitting the older boy's face.

"Very nice, thanks. Now come on, I think If Davis has to wait any longer, he'll explode."

The four of them walked past an empty game station and hotdog booth, past a bathroom and patch of wild mushrooms, and finally found the others sitting at a shaded table by the Roller Coaster.

"It wasn't fair, and you know it!" Davis was shouting. " I got there first, and that was the bet."

"Nuh-uh!" Yolei glared. " You said you could get there first AND destroy the spire. But me and Shurimon got it, not you."

Hawkmon, feathers ruffled, nodded. "Yolei is right."

Davis glowered. " It's "Shurimon and I". And... and...uh..."

"Davish, maybe you should just buy her the soda." Veemon pointed out. "She might stop bringing chocolate bars if you get her mad."

"Oh, fine, you won. I'll buy you the stinking soda." Davis pouted. Everyone laughed.

"You ready to ride?" Matt asked.

Loud cheers answered him.

It didn't take long at all for Gatomon and Hawkmon to find and figure out the control box on the roller coaster, and soon everyone was riding. It took some convincing to get Cody to sit down and relax, but shortly even the solemn boy was laughing and shrieking with delight as the cart hurtled around the track.

After several trips for everyone- trading off with those manning the controls- Matt looked at his watch.

"Hey, guys? One more ride, I think, and then we should get back. After all, it _is _ a school night, and Izzy's not the only one with tests in the morning.

"Oh, the ferris wheel!" Kari cried. "Please?" Everyone else agreed, and they found the control box. Cody happily volunteered to operate it, and the others boarded.

"Hey, Kari, wanna sit with me?" Davis asked, but before she could take him up on or decline the offer, Veemon yanked the bar down, and the wheel clanged upward. Kari plopped down in the seat next to Yolei, while Gatomon, Armadillomon and Hawkmon chose the next bench.

"I'll wait down here with Cody, if you don't mind," Gabumon said.

"Suit yourself, but you're missing out, dude!" Matt laughed as he jumped lightly into the next seat. TK plopped down next to him.

The ride took them higher.

"Hey, Matt you're still coming to dinner, right?" TK asked his brother.

"For Mom's cooking, I'd come to a five AM breakfast, Kiddo. Why wouldn't I?"

" Just checking." the wheel stopped so that the girls, now at the top, could enjoy the view.

" Would you mind if we went to Izzy's, first?" TK looked at his hands. He'd tell Matt at dinner, but he wanted to get Izzy's opinion on the dreams first.

"Why?" Matt turned to face his younger brother as the wheel lurched upwards. Patamon looked at TK too.

"I just need to talk to him. It's no big deal." Patamon frowned at this, but said nothing.

Matt shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Mom won't be expecting us for another hour anyway."

TK smiled, and suddenly the world jolted sideways.

Someone- many someones, screamed. The wheel shifted again, and TK banged his head on the back of the seat. " Patamon!"

Already, the little digimon was glowing.

"**Patamon ArmourDigivolve to...Pegasusmon!**

Gatomon and Hawkmon followed, flying to the rescue of the non-flyers, bringing them safely to the ground.

"What _WAS_ that?" Matt asked, staring at the titling ferris wheel.

"Look out!" Cody cried.

From the easy came a stream of darkness, whirring. eyes widened as they understood. Black Gears.

Three collided with the ferris wheel and it exploded, crashing to the ground.

"Run!" several voices cried at once.

"**Blue Blaster**!" Gabumon let out a beam of energy, vaporizing a half dozen of the gears as the other digimon did the same.

"Get to the trees!" Matt ordered. "Everyone, get out of here!" He raised his digivice, willing it to glow. the golden and blue light gleamed, shattering gears right and left. They were almost there!

Just a few more yards, and .. there! There was the TV!

The whirring stopped, for a moment. T.K turned, his glowing digivice still in hand, warding off the gears that had.. stopped? No, not stopped.

Before he could say a word, before he could do anything, he saw them. Gears, bigger than the rest. They flew, straight and true as any arrow.

"Matt!"

"No!"

The gears struck the blond boy, dark energy filling him. The light pouring from the digivice, light that had done no good, flickered and failed. He fell, face down in the trees and grass. Unmoving.

The gears were gone, as quickly as they'd come. Smoke drifted over the park, almost lazily. Davis turned from the TV to his fallen friend. " Oh no." his eyes went wide. he ran, stumbling over tree routes to join Kari, Cody and Yolei by T.K's side.

"Is he..?" Cody breathed, afraid to ask.

"He's breathing. But it took bad. I think.. I think those gears went _in _him." Patamon shuddered. Gabumon hung his head.

"I've failed. It's my job to protect him." He said, mournfully.

"We need to get him to Joe, NOW." Kari stood, her knees shaking.

Cody ran to the TV, opening the portal. "Can we open it to Joe's if Joe isn't here?"

"I don't think so. Open it to Izzy's, that's the closest to Joe's, plus his parents .. they get this stuff. Here, use my Digivice, Izzy programed it to open the portal to his computer." Kari said, tossing the pink and white device to the younger boy. He caught it, then held it up to the screen.

Cody nodded. " Ok, it's open. I'll go first." In a flash of light, he and Armadillomon were gone.

Davis and Kari reached down to help carry their friend, Yolei reaching down to pick up his fallen digivice. She turned it over and over in her hand, still to winded- and shocked- to speak.

The other Digimon went through, then Yolei and Davis. Kari turned. "He'll be OK. He will." Her eyes were dark with fear, with memory, but she tried to Remember what else had happened in the Digiworld. Miracles. Everything would be alright.

"I hope so," T.K said softly as they fell through the portal, clinging to the unconscious form of Matt.

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><p><strong>And there you go. Was that worth the month? I hope so! How many of you did I manage to fool? I'm not gonna kill off maim/ or seriously Injure T.K so soon in the story. : D. hah. Ok, well, I won't keep you much longer. I want to take the chance to tell you that the songs I've been posting? well, most of them are part of a.. well, let's say a code. Most of them have something in common, figure it out and it'll tell you something about the story. For the record, the song bits in this chapter and in the first one are both part of the code, and from now on, I'll mark 'code songs' with a (*). Have fun! ( also, figuring it out might get you a sneak peak when I start to get *really* mean with the cliffhangers.)**

**Also, review. I got a ton of folks putting this on their Alerts or faves, and that thought thrills me! I want to know your reactions! What are your favorite parts? Least favorite? Parts that remind you why you put this on a list of any kind? Let me know in a review. Reviews are the very best things for my self esteem as a writer, and the higher that is, the faster I'll get these chapters out. Thanks everyone. You all make my day!**

**Anyway, thanks for reading!**

**~HNA**


	4. Not Just a Nightmare

**Hello Folks! Glad to see you all. Midterms went well- My Children's Lit was a fun one, just an essay on any book I wanted. Ok, first thing's first- there will be a few things in this story that will not make sense. They are not plot holes, but set ups for the companion to this fic, which will be about five chapters and only focus on Ken. Ken has a hand in the events of this story, but will not be appearing in it. Sorry Ken fans! Just be patient, ok? **

**Disclaimer: I own a Patamon sticker and a ceramic Crest of Hope, but not Digimon. Sigh.**

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><p><em>Souls in the wind<br>Must learn how to bend  
>Seek out a star<br>Hold on to the end  
>Valley, mountain<br>There is a fountain  
>Washes our tears all away<br>Words are swaying  
>Somebody is praying...<em>

_-Hold On Together*_

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><p><em>Chapter Three: Not Just a Nightmare<em>

Izzy sat at his desk, hunched over a thick notebook, trying to read his own handwriting. Without warning, the computer screen began to glow, the bright signal that a portal to the Digital world had opened. Izzy leapt from his chair, glancing at the clock. His brow furrowed- the others weren't usually this early in returning from a trip.

Cody landed unsteadily, stumbling away from the monitor. "Izzy, it's bad," the nine-year-old stuttered. "It's really bad." Before he could say more, or Izzy could ask, Yolei and Davis came through, along with the digimon, tangled in a heap on the floor.

"What! What's bad, what happened?" the redhead asked the younger trio, helping them to their feet. His stomach clenched. Kari and T.K. weren't back, neither was Matt. _"What if..."_

But Kari and T.K. appeared, supporting Matt between them. Wordlessly, Izzy indicated his neatly made bed and grabbed an extra pillow from his closet shelf. He offered it to T.K.

"What happened in there?" he demanded, his face ashen.

It was Yolei, her voice small, who answered. "We... We were at a park, and then, out of nowhere there were just... those Gears. Dozens of them. We tried! We tried to fight them off, but there were just so many of them! I...We... They hit him. Matt. They went _in _him, Izzy." She blinked hard, tangling her fingers in long purple hair.

Izzy's eyes widened. Nothing like this had happened before, not once. The Gears ... but it wasn't possible, they were _gone_. Weren't they? " Are you sure?" he asked, phone already in hand.

"Yes." Cody said firmly. He was shaking slightly, hugging Upamon tightly against him.

"Right." Izzy nodded curtly. Well, Gears were something he'd fought before. He put his phone down, pulling his pale blue Digivice from the top desk drawer. slowly, light began to pour from it, covering Matt. But when it faded, the blond boy still lay there, breathing shallowly. Izzy bit his lip, hard.

"Izzy?" Kari asked, her voice high. " Why didn't he wake up?"

" I don't know. There are three– well, two, I suppose– ways to get a black gear out of a digimon. One," he held up a finger, "is with the light of a Digivice. The other..." Izzy looked away. " The other isn't really an option."

"Why not, what is it?" Davis asked, eager to help his friend.

"It involves an extremely powerful attack, something that could do more harm than good." Izzy replied.

T.K. looked up from his brother's bedside. "But... it was a lot of Gears, maybe it's like... like with Leomon, when he found me in primary village. It took a lot of Digivices to stop him. Maybe..?" Already he had in hand his own green and white Digivice, and held it over the prone form of his brother. Izzy nodded, as if to say, "It can't hurt." The others followed suit, but even with the different colors of light blending into white and Izzy's own golden-silver, nothing changed.

Nothing Changed.

"Kari, I want you to go get Tai," Izzy said, his voice terse. She didn't need to be told twice. With Gatomon hot on her heels, she bolted, down the hall and out. Before the front door had even slammed shut, Izzy was on the phone.

"Joe? Yes, It's me. No, Izzy. Yes, I know about the Chem test. No. No. I need you over here, now. Now, Joe. Bring your Digivice." He hung up, cutting off whatever question Joe had been trying to ask. The others were staring, mostly, although Tsunomon had not taken his eyes from his partner's face.

"I have a Theory," was all the computer whiz said as he dialed Sora's number.

"Theories are good," Davis nodded. Demi-Veemon nodded in agreement. No one said anything for a moment, then the hall door burst open. Red-faced from running, Tai fairly flew into Izzy's room.

"What..Is't?" he panted, scanning the room for what had sent Kari so urgently. His eyes fell on Matt, and widened. "No."

"Tai, he's not..." Izzy began.

"It was Black Gears." T.K. cut him off. "There were too many of them." His voice was thick, his fingers clenched.

"What? But we destroyed the last of them, with the Zhaemon, ages ago."

Izzy shook his head. "We must have missed some, Tai. More than "some", it sounds like there were an awful lot of Gears.

Joe and Sora arrived, equally out of breath.

"Please tell me I misheard that." Joe turned to Sora, dropping his Medi-kit.

" Matt!" Sora cried at the same time, ignoring Joe. " What on earth happened? Are you all..? What do you mean, Gears? I thought...What happened?" She was very near hysterics.

Again, Yolei spoke up. "Well, we found this old amusement park, and after we took out some spires, we thought... We just wanted to ride. Take a break." She hugged Poromon close. "But just was we were leaving, they just came out of nowhere, it just happened. Those Black Gear things, the ones that were controlling the Zhanemon, and we all ran, but it wasn't enough, and, and, and," she buried her face in Poromon's soft pink feathers. Cody looked up from his spot on the rug.

"We tried to destroy them. Our Digivices weren't strong enough, and we tried to warn him, but we were to slow." The youngest of the Digidestined hunched his shoulders.

Izzy put a hand on his shoulder. "Everyone, Digivices. It's very possible that the sheer quantity of the gears is too much energy for just mine, or," he waved a hand at the newer digidestined, " the newer Digivices. I discovered, when I was studying yours, Yolie, And yours, Kari, that they are quite different, not just in appearance, from the older ones. As it's the original Digivices that bear the likeness of the Digivice inscribed in the Labyrinth, It's entirely plausible that they are the only ones truly effective–"

Tai interrupted, squeezing his round blue digivice. " We get it, Iz. Let's do this."

Joe rummaged around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out his own digivice, and Sora clutched hers. Again, light filled the room, brighter this time. And again, it did no good.

Izzy's eyes dimmed, and his shoulders slumped. He sighed, then abruptly turned and slammed a clenched fist against his desk. It hadn't worked.

" Hey." Tai reached out to his friend." Izzy, it... it's not your fault. You'll figure it out, I know you can."

Joe knelt down again, next to T.K., who had not moved from the bedside.

"His pulse is normal., and so's his breathing. He's not bleeding either, did he hit his head, even a little?"

T.K. shook his head slowly. "He sort of face-planted." Patamon offered, fluttering up to hover over Joe's hand. "But the grass was really soft." Joe nodded.

"I don't know- There isn't any reason for him to be...to be unconscious. The digimon infected with Black gears.. well, they just turn evil, not pass out. Still, if he's not waking up, that's not a good sign." From the Medi-kit, Joe pulled a vial of pale yellow liquid, and a white stick. He snapped the stick- smelling salts- under Matt's nose, but there was no reaction. the strong smelling oil had similar results.

"Should we call your brother?" Kari asked, worriedly.

Joe shrugged. " I don't know. Yes, I mean, I guess." he nervously polished his glasses. " this reminds me of those people Myotismon put to sleep- it's the same symptoms, in a way. They woke up pretty quickly once we- well, you guys mostly- beat him. But in this case, there's no telling how soon it'll be. There isn't anything wrong with him physically, really. But we can't tell hospital staff that theres some sort of malevolent energy that's causing the problem. Still, I'm not a doctor, and there could be something more, plus, if it lasts...Well, a hospital is more equipped to deal with..comas."

T.K. nodded, getting to his feet . "I'll...I'll call my folks. Joe's right, we should call Jim, and the hospital. Just in case... they can do anything." he swallowed.

Joe reached into his coat pocket for his phone, dialing Jim's number. Izzy handed T.K his own mobile. "Here. Don't worry, we'll ... we'll figure this out.

" I know." T.K smiled weakly has he accepted the phone, but it was short-lived. " Do you mind if I...?" he looked over his shoulder at the door.

"Go ahead," Izzy nodded. Patamon fluttering behind him, T.K left the room.

The room was quiet, with the exceptions of Joe's hushed conversation with Jim, and Gatomon's low comforting of Tsunomon.

Izzy sat at his computer, typing rapidly.

"Izzy?" Sora asked softly. " Is there anything we can do? At all?"

"I hate to say it, but I don't know. I don't know anything at this point. I'm trying to get some images of what happened this afternoon- some of Ken's cameras are still up, even if he's not using them anymore. I might be able to break into them, now that he's not monitoring the system. If I can get video, or some images, it might help me find out where they came from. Ideally, I'd trace them back to the source, but I don't think I'll be that lucky. Still, it's worth a shot."

" Oh," Sora nodded. "That makes sense."

Joe hung up. " Jim's on his way, his friends- the response team- are too."

Kari remembered Jim's friends from before, when T.K. had been hurt, after her kidnapping. They'd been calm, and sure of themselves, even without the full story. She hoped they'd be able to help as much this time, but what if they couldn't? Unlike the other " First" digidestined, she'd never seen a Black Gear. She'd seen what they could do to a digimon, of course, when a flock of Zhannemon had attacked Cody and snatched gatomon, but that was it. She knew, though, that Light was the greatest weapon she and her friends had against them. Light. _She_ was Light. Like so often since the...the accident, She reached a hand to her neck and found only bare skin. No thin cord, no pendant. She'd lost the Crest of Light- the replica that still held power- in the chaos When one of Ken's armies had fought Mimi's, when she'd been trapped. When T.K.'d nearly died. If she'd still had it, would that have helped? Might the Crest have held back the gears long enough?

" Kari," Gatomon said, blue eyes wide and bright. " I know what you're thinking. It's not your fault the Crest's gone. And there's no way to know if it even had much power left in it. For all we know, I used the last of the energy Myotismon transferred into it when I digivolved against the Spires."

Kari nodded, but her hand remained where it was, a fist clenched around a memory of a necklace.

T.K. re-entered Izzy's bedroom just as Jim called from the porch. Feet pounded on the outer stairway, and Izzy threw open the door. Matt was loaded into the ambulance, and after promising that their parents would be at the hospital, T.K. followed the paramedics, Patamon and Tsunomon squashed into Izzy's spare backpack. Joe also joined them.

" Call us, if there's anything." Izzy told him. "I should stay here and see if I can find anything.

_At the hospital_

T.K.'s parents sat by Matt's hospital bed, listening to the beep of machines, Tsunomon tucked into the crook of the unconscious boy's arm. T.K .and Joe had explained as much of the story as they were going to- T.K., Matt, and some other friends had been hanging out, when Matt had fallen, and not gotten up. Simple enough. T.K. was not looking forward to telling his parents the truth- his mother still didn't know the real reason he'd ended up in the hospital weeks before. Still, eventually, he'd have to.

Something had been bugging him, though. The gears, for the most part, had not come near anyone- anyone but him. Matt had been between those final gears and him. In fact, T.K. could almost swear that they'd followed his path through the forest.

But where had they come from? And what had Tai and Izzy meant, about destroying the rest of them? Hadn't the Zhannemon done that?

He borrowed let the door close softly, then found Joe, who was talking to Jim.

"Uh, Joe? I need to ask Izzy something. Can I borrow your phone?"

The older boy nodded, fishing it out of his pocket.

"Izzy?" T.K. asked when someone picked up.

"T.K.? How's Matt? Did they find anything?"

"No. They want to do some tests, though. Listen, Izzy, I've got to ask. Is.. was there something that you didn't tell me? About the Gears? Because I...I noticed somethings. And I've got something to tell you. Patamon thought it was Important. But I need to know, Izzy. Those Gears- I though that the last of them were inside the Zhannemon!"

There was a long pause on Izzy's end of the line. " You're right." Izzy sighed. "We didn't tell you everything. Last month, when that Tai, Sora and I went with you guys, to work on my map, we came across a mass of land that wasn't originally part of the continent. File Island, to be exact, only now it's part of the larger land base. We'd found it weeks ago, when we were looking for Gatomon, but hadn't had much of a chance to explore, since Ken was still in power. Last month, we found a cache of Gears, and with the Zhannemon's help, destroyed them. We thought that we'd gotten rid of the last of them, but we were wrong."

"Why not tell me? Why not tell us?"

There was a scuffle, then Tai's voice. "We thought it was over- and like Izzy said, the older Digivices are more suited to destroying the Gears. But you're right. We should have told you."

Izzy's voice came on. "You're on speaker phone, T.K. It's just Tai and me, though. You said you needed to tell me something?"

"It's going to sound crazy, but.. the gears that hit Matt...I think they were after me."

Silence.

"Are.. are you there?" T.K. asked.

At last, T.K heard a sigh. "It was Matt's idea. He didn't want you to worry."

"Worry about what!" T.K. had to keep from shouting. " What was Matt's idea?"

"Not telling you. It came up when we were trying to figure out Ken's plan. The night that he took Kari. Joe brought it up first, I think."

" Brought what up?" T.K. demanded, but he knew what Tai was about to say.

"That since File Island was back...Devimon might be, too." Tai's voice was quiet, so unlike the brash leader. T.K. felt his knees weaken. He sat, heavily. Patamon had been right. The Dreams _had _ meant something. If he'd told Izzy about them sooner! If he'd told anyone about them.

T.K. remembered the assault on Ken's base. The vortex, the Digimon inside the whirlpool. It hadn't been an illusion, then. It hadn't been his nightmares combining with his anger at Ken. It had been.. him. Devimon.

"T.K.? Are you still there? T.K.? Answer me!" Izzy shouted into the phone.

T.K. was dazed. "He's back. I...I should have said something sooner. About the dreams."

"What dreams? T.K? What are you talking about."

Joe was standing nearby, but T.K. didn't notice, didn't even notice that the older boy was holding Patamon.

"The same dream, over and over. Pata said to tell you. It's the same dream. Devimon. And a fight. And he _wins, _Izzy, Tai. He wins. What if it's all true?"

" T.K., breathe." Izzy instructed. Joe came closer, putting a hand on his friend's back. Patamon flopped onto his person's lap.

"Listen to me," Izzy continued. "It's not your fault. We should have said something."

Tai piped up, " It was just... we had to save Kari, and then we had to beat Ken, and in all that time, nothing happened, no hint of...nothing at all. We thought.. we convinced ourselves it was nothing. I'm such an idiot."

" No, Tai." T.K. murmured. " It's because he's after me that Matt got hurt."

" T.K., don't you dare blame yourself." Joe said, locking eyes with the blond. "It won't help anything. It's not your fault, it's Devimon's, and don't forget it."

" Joe's right." Izzy said. in the background, the sounds of typing came, loud and fast. "We're going to find him, and we're going to find away to beat him for good. That's a Promise. I've found a file in Ken's system about the Gears, I think I can find away to destroy them without risking an attack. Just...hold on. Ok?"

T.K nodded, then realized Izzy couldn't see him.

"I...I still feel like I could have stopped it. But.."

Jim appeared. " T.K.? Your parents are looking for you."

"I'll talk to you later, I need to go" T.K hung up quickly, not waiting to hear what Izzy or tai had to say. he didn't _want _ to hear it. It was his fault, not matter what they'd said- and he was upset- how could they have not told him? Sure, Devimon hadn't attacked until today, but...

Patamon glanced around, then fluttered up to T.K.'s shoulder. " T.K? It's going to be ok. Izzy Promised, and so do I. We'll beat him, you know we will." The little digimon whispered.

T.K. nodded. "I hope so."

But as he re-entered his brother's hospital room, he wasn't so sure.

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><p><strong>Oh, yay. I got that done, and look how long it is! I typed it all in one night, and now my fingers hurt. Poor fingers! So... Yeah, this was a hard one to write. More action in the next one, I Promise. ( yeah, Capital P Promise. They're back!) What did you like? What didn't you like? What did I do right or wrong? favorite line? Character I neglected? Come on, there are, like, 14 of you on the Alerts list. Leave a two word review. Or longer. Longer makes me happy. And happy me gives out spoilerspreviews when the cliffies start to get big. also, Happy me writes faster. so make me happy! Leave a review. I'm not to proud to beg. :) please?**

***Gatomon-kitten-eyes* you know you should. It can be your good deed of the day.**

**Thanks for Reading( and reviewing, if you do that too.) You are all AWESOME!( yes, that's a guilt trip) :)**

**HNA**


	5. In the Nick Of Time

**Hello Again! Lovely to see you all. Oh, this chapter was a pain to write, but look! I did it! It just.. took me a month. and change. sorry. OK, a few things- I've started a blog- the link is in my profile- to go along with these stories- A Captive Light, it's sequel, A Fading Hope and the eventual companion to A Fading Hope, An Unseen Kindness. On it you'll find progress reports( wrote a scene today), previews, commentary, explanations, links and/or full lyrics for the song snippets, Musings on the story itself, responses to reviews/ questions, and more. Exciting, right? **

**Also, this chapter is Dedicated to Vincent, my amazing boyfriend for the last two+ years, and he's going away on his Grand Mormon Adventure for the next two years. :( I miss you already, V.**

**Disclaimer: Still nope. but If I ever win the lottery, I'll be buying the rights.**

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><p><em>Hearts ablaze<em>

_Banners high_

_We go marching into battle_

_Unafraid although _

_The danger's just Increased_

~ The Mob Song*

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><p><em>Chapter Four: In The Nick of Time<em>

"T.K.?" Kari walked into her first bell class, not expecting to see her friend.

" Hi, Kari." It was clear he hadn't gotten much, if any, sleep. There were dark half circles under his eyes, and his normally messy blond hair was even more untidy than usual.

"I thought you'd be with him. Is there any news?" the girl sat down in her customary seat in the next row, leaning across the aisle.

" No. No changes. I just...I couldn't stay there, not knowing, waiting for something to happen. Dad's with him now, and Mom's going to be staying overnight for... as long as it takes, I guess." He bit his lip. _What if Matt _never _wakes up? What'll we.. what'll _I _ do?_

Kari reached out a hand, touching his arm lightly. "T.K.? Tai told me that you blame yourself. He didn't say why, but..If you want to talk about it, I'm here. It's not your fault, it's not. Not anymore than.. than what happened Before was... was _my _fault. I know that saying that doesn't really change anything, that It still feels like it was, but... you've got to know that it's not. OK?" she gave him a weak smile as other classmates began to take their seats and pull out pens and notepads. Davis entered, looking over at the two, then taking his own seat with a sigh. He'd talk to them as soon as class was over

"Thanks, Kari." T.K returned her smile with an equally weak one, but it was still a smile. "Really. I..." the tardy bell rang. " I'll talk to you at lunch."

Kari nodded before bending down to dig a notebook out of her own backpack, as the teacher began to lecture.

Class was dull and none of the three Digidestined could focus on the lesson at hand, half heartedly scribbling notes while checking their digivices. At last the hour was up, the bell rang, and it was time to walk to the next class.

"T.K., Kari, wait up!" Davis walked over to them quickly, his backpack still half open and his folders crammed inside. " Anything?" he asked breathlessly. T.K shook his head.

"Oh." Davis deflated. He'd been so _sure_ that Matt would be well.

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><p>The day, and classes, dragged on. At each break, T.K called his mother, who would be at the hospital until the boys' father got off work in the evening. the answer was always the same- no change. At lunch, Kari found her friend sitting on a bench under the breezeway, near the gym. It was cool out, and most everyone else had chosen to sit inside.<p>

"T.K.?" Kari queried, sitting down beside T.K. "At least he's not doing any worse."

T.K. nodded, staring at his untouched sandwich. It was true. The doctors had done some tests, with more scheduled for that afternoon and the next morning. But so far, Joe was right. There _wasn't_ anything wrong with Matt they could find, and he was stable. Small blessings.

"What were you saying earlier?" Kari paused. "You know, before the bell rang. You said we'd talk at lunch." she prompted.

"_It's Kari. I can tell her. She'd get it, if anyone would." _He knew she blamed herself for Wizardmon's death, years ago, and for his own near miss. Unconsciously, he touched his right ribs, where he'd been hit. They'd been badly bruised, but somehow not cracked or broken. Still, they hurt at times.

Kari looked away.

" It's.. It's just... it _is _my fault. If it really is Devimon, he's come after me. Me. Not Matt, or anyone Matt was protecting me. Like always. And now, he's..."

Kari reached out, her small hand on his arm.

"I understand." she said softly.

T.K. nodded quickly, swallowing the lump in his throat. He looked again at his lunch.

" I've.." he started. " I've been having dreams- nightmares."

Kari drew back slightly. " The Dark Ocean?" she whispered. that grey landscape still haunted her dreams, though not as often as they had in earlier weeks. the thought still chilled her. The Dark Ocean...

" No! no. Nothing like-" but he stopped. The feeling was similar, just.. darker. Deeper." No." he finished. " not the Dark Ocean. I... I don't know what it is. It's just.. dark. And I can't move. And then he shows up. It was a warning, a warning, and I just ignored it. Told myself it was nothing." his voice was getting louder. "Nothing! But it wasn't! If I'd just said something sooner, then-"

Kari cut him off.

"T.K., stop it. You couldn't have known. Sometimes Dreams are just dreams.. and...and we can't tell which is which. Please. It..I know what you mean. I understand. But don't.." Kari felt at a loss for words. What could she say?" don't blame yourself"? But he would anyway. And she still blamed herself for...everything. She settled for, "Thank you. For telling me. I...You...We've got to believe that everything will work out. And it will." she added with conviction. " It won't be like...like the last time."

T.K. swiped a sleeve across his eyes, then nodded." Thanks, Kar. For Listening. And for everything. I've got to call Mom... see if they found anything."

Kari got to her feet, and waved. " I'm going to go find gatomon and Patamon." she pointed to the open gym door a few yards away.

" I'll be there in a minute." T.K promised her.

The rest of lunch passed quickly. There was still no change to Matt's condition, for better or worse. Patamon had told Gaatomon how worried he was about T.K, that he'd only slept for an hour, two at most the night before. After T.k and Kari arrived ( bringing lunch for the digimon) and filled in their partners, they'd gone to find the others.

The cafeteria was harshly lit and very loud, and the bell would ring at any moment, but they'd quickly found the other three Digidestined, and sat down. Davis wanted to know where they'd been, but Yolei told him to shut up, and reminded him he still owed her a soda pop.

" Anything?" Cody asked, not meeting T.K's eyes, focused instead on his lunch tray.

" No." the word felt like sawdust in the taller boy's mouth. there was quiet at the table, but only for a moment.

BBBRRRRIIINNNGGGG. The bell signaled an end to lunch, and the five stood up. " Something'll happen soon, " Davis predicted. " And it'll help us figure out all this. I know it."

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><p>That something did indeed happen soon, with seven minutes until the end of the school day.<p>

Cody stared at the clock, one hand clenched around his digivice. It had suddenly let out a pulse and a beep, but luckily during the video segment, now over, that his science teacher was showing about sea turtles. He was grateful no one had heard, but sat, unsure of what to do. The digital world needed him, and he was stuck in class_. "Come on, hurry up."_ he willed the clock.

Davis and Yolei, in the middle of a very dull history lecture, looked over at each other.

"Four." Davis mouthed across the aisle.

" Four?" She mouth back, holding up four fingers. He nodded. Yolei raised a hand. " Sir?" she asked, interrupting. " I don't feel so good. I'm." She raised her other hand to her mouth, as though she were about to be ill.

The teacher scanned the classroom, looking for someone to-

" I'll take her." Davis got to his feet, and before the teacher could even nod, the two were gone.

" that was great!" Davis cheered as they reached the computer lab door. " How'd you get your face so green?"

Yolei shrugged. " Family secret. Hana'd kill me if I told." she opened the door.

Kari was already there- she'd been running laps in P.E, and had faked a sprained ankle( she'd learned to do that to get out of playing soccer when she needed to study.) She'd already gathered the digimon from their various hiding spots( Veemon had taken to napping in a little used closet, with Porromon and Upamon in the computer lab closet)

T.K followed a minute later.

"I just said that I'd gotten a message, and trailed off." He shrugged. He felt a little guilty for letting his teacher believe he'd meant a message from the hospital, but only a little. After all, the Digital world had sent him a message, a distress call, and it was connected to his brother.

It wasn't until after the bell had rung that Cody appeared, breathing hard. " I'm sorry." he panted. " but I couldn't get away."

Davis was already by the computer. " come on!" the portal opened, and they were gone.

They landed hard. T.K surveyed the area, trying to remember if he'd ever been there. He was sure he had. It was a small village of sorts, filled with little huts, and one tall building, human sized. He was sure he'd...

"It's the Koromon Village!" Patamon squeaked. " but where is everyone?"

The little digimon was right. It was the same village where he'd digivolved from his baby form back into Togomon.

"Oh, no!" Yolei cried. " we've got to find them! come on Hawkmon!"

"Right behind you!"

the two took off running.

"Wait!" Kari cried, stopping them. "I don't think we should go off alone. Come on Gatomon." the girls took one direction, the boys the other.

" I think I remember.. a hiding place. They might be there." T.K tried to think. " the waterfall!"

They changed course, racing towards the sound of running water. There! The waterfall, billowing down the side of a huge cliff. there was a cave just behind it, T.k remembered.

"Oh! They came!" cried the jubilant voices of a dozen or so Koromon. " I knew they would!", "Look!"." It's Patamon!", " How ya doing, Pata?" ," Is that a Veemon?", " My gosh, it is!" And on and on.

"Wait, hold on!" Cody looked up from the bouncing pink digimon. " We got a distress call. Was it you? What's happened?"

One of the Koromon bounced forward. " We were driven from our village. There were gears! A whole flock of them. we hid in the caves, but they might return. We were afraid."

" Right. I'm emailing the girls." Davis pulled his D-Terminal from his jacket pocket, but there was little need. Kari and Yolei were racing towards them. behind them was a swarm of black gears.

" Digivices!" Armadillomon called. "Everyone, now! Koromon, hide, unless you think you can fight some of these things."

Most of the Koromon fled into the cave, but four stayed.

Kari and Yolei, still several yards away, turned to face the gears, digivices at the ready.

"**Digiarmour Energize!"**

**Gatomon, Armor-Digivolve to….NefertiMon**

**Veemon, Armor-Digivolve to…. Raidramon!**

**Patamon, Armor-Digivolve to….Pegasusmon!**

**Armadillomon, Armor-Digivolve to… Digmon!**

**Hawkmon, Armor-Digivolve to…Halsemon!**

Attacks flew, thick and fast, as did bursts of light from the digvices themselves.

A gear skirted dangerously close to Kari, but Nefertimon stopped it with a pink beam of energy. "Cats Eye Beam!" she called again, vaporizing three more gears. The Koromon formed a circle, blasting gears as best they could with bright pink bubbles. Yolei hopped aboard Halsemon, who hovered above the storm,picking out targets with deadly accuracy. Ish.

"Hey, watch it!" Davis cried as one attack nearly singed him.

"Sorry!" Yolei screamed back. " It's kinda hard to see!"

Though it seemed to last forever, the fight, if one could call it that, was short. The gears were gone, dust. No one had been hit, not even the brave little Koromon. Kari sank to the ground, drained.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." The Digimon peeped as they led the children to their village, offering food, which everyone accepted with thanks.

"This is twice you have saved us." the leader said, bouncing up and down, as though bowing.

"Ne Pramplem." Yolei said through a mouthful of bread.

"What she means to say is, no problem." Hawkmon translated.

"It's what we're here for." Gatomon purred, munching on a small river fish.

They bid the Koromon goodbye, then went on. Izzy's map said there was a spire nearby, and they took it down with ease. Still, the gear attacks worried them._ "It could happen again, at anytime._" Cody thought, eyes fixed on the sky.

" Izzy needs to hear about this." T.K said. " It might..help. if he can trace those gears, it might lead us to.. him."

" I think we should tell everyone." Patamon spoke up. " Tai and Joe and Sora...everyone. The other digimon too."

At last they came to the next Television screen. " I'll see if I can find Joe." Cody offered.

"And Sora's mother's shop is near there."

"Let's meet at Izzy's- he's got all his computer stuff there. If not, my mom and dad won't be home for ages- they're visiting my Grandma." Kari suggested.

The others agreed, and they opened the portals home.

It was took under twenty minutes to assemble everyone but Matt and Mimi( although Izzy did shoot her an email.)

When Davis finished explaining everything, Tai stood. "It's not enough, then, to just show up after school. The gears could strike at anytime. If only we could just.. stay. but we don't even know where."

"Well, actually, so far, the attacks have been limited to the edges of Server, and File Island/peninsula, If you count the Zhannemon." Izzy commented, looking up from his laptop. " And I've spoken to my parents. I don't have any tests or major projects due in the next week, and my grades are sufficient, I can miss a bit of homework, and anyway, all my teachers love me, so I'm sure they'll let me make up anything that I miss, particularly if my parents say I've been ill, which is true, technically I've got a small cold, and-"

" What are you talking about, Izzy?" Sora asked, cutting him of before he launched a long winded description of.. whatever it was he was trying to say.

The redhead sighed. " Sorry. I mean to say, I can go on a "camping trip" like last month when you," he pointed at the younger kids, " went Emperor Hunting. My parents know about the danger, but they agreed that if it needs to be done, they think I should. You might ask your mom, Sora. I know that she knows and understands about the Digital world.

"Well, more or less." Sora agreed. "And it works out, timing wise." seeing confusion, she explained. " Tennis competition, me and Lynd were leaving tomorrow, but she got sick at practice this morning. Stomach flu, or something. So we can't go. I don't mind- the other set of girls we practice with were really good, and it should have been them going. but my point is, I still have all the lecture notes and homework stuff from my teachers- I had to take a test at lunch today, but so long as I do that work, I can afford to miss a couple days. Mom won't like it, but she understands, like you said. I'll call her now, if you think ..."

Tai nodded. " I'd go, but my mom and dad would go crazy. Joe, what about you?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't, I really can't. I can get you some supplies though." the downcast boy brightened. he stood. I'll be right back, if you guys want to leave tonight."

" I think that'd be good." Izzy said. Sora nodded.

"I'll go with Joe. I've got to grab some stuff, and mom'll take it better if I tell her in person. Probably." Sora smiled hopefully.

"Oh! I'll walk with you." Yolei offered, getting to her feet. " unless you need me? I've got to get to the shop- I've been putting off my shift for ages, and anyway, you'll need food."

At a collective nod from the rest of the group, the three, with Poromon tucked safely under Yolei's arm, left.

* * *

><p>They stopped at Joe's first. no one was home, so no one asked what they were doing or why the needed so much stuff. Joe filled a large backpack from his personal closet of supplies- everything from hand-warmers to water purification tablets to ace bandages to space blankets. He hefted it. "not too bad."<p>

"My Family's shop isn't too far, but I think it's the other direction from your place, Sora." Yolei looked thoughtful. " but someone's got to carry the food back."

"I'll meet you there, Joe." Sora decided. " It shouldn't take to long to talk to my mom, and I'm a fast runner."

"Sounds good to me." Joe shrugged.

* * *

><p>It took longer than Sora thought.<p>

"No."

"Momma, I need to. People are counting on me!"

"What about school?"

"I've got everything under control, I promise." Sora held up on hand like a person under oath. " all my teachers know I'll be gone- for different reasons, sure, but"

"Sora, I don't want you getting hurt. I know that whatever happened to Tai's little sister was because of this, and now the Ishida boy. It's dangerous."

"I know, Mom. But I've got to go. It's the only way we can..." her voice cracked a little. "It's the only way to save him, Mom. Unless we beat the thing that hurt him, he.."

Her mother's eyes softened. "Be careful, Sora. Go, then. But promise me you'll be careful. Call those other friends of yours at the slightest sign of those monsters. and stay with.. with Biyomon, It was Biyomon, right? Stay with it- her."

Sora nodded. " I will. I Promise. I.. I love you, Momma."

"I love you too, my Sora." The flower arranger stepped forward and hugged her daughter tightly. "Now go. It's getting late, and they're.. they're waiting for you, I'm sure."

Sora took off at a run, turning at the corner to wave one more goodbye.

She reached the corner market in record time her small duffle slung across her back. Joe held up a few bags, and she picked up the two remaining ones. Yolei called from the counter. " Good Luck! I'll see you tomorrow!"

"So... how'd your mom take it?" Joe asked after they'd walked a few blocks in silence.

Sora sighed. "She took it. Not so well as Izzy's apparently, but...She's ok with it. Not happy, but ok."

"Ah." They'd reached Izzy's door. well, I'd better go I have a test in the morning."

"Well, bye, Joe. Thanks for all the gear." Sora took the backpack.

"Eh, don't mention it. Just, you know, be careful. Don't die."

"We won't!" she called after him.

Inside, Izzy was ready and waiting.

He turned to Tai. " I'll be here." he pointed on the map. " Sora, good. I'm trying to calculate likely spots for attacks. Both, so far, have happened in areas we've been to, but after Devimon was , this might be a good spot for you." he pointed on the map. " It's near where Digitamamon's old restaurant was." Neither of them had ever been there, but it was also near Byiomon's territory.

"Sounds good to me," Sora agreed, noting the lack of spires in the area. that suited her just fine.

"I'm taking this section" Izzy continued, pointing. It was between the amusement park area, the Koromon Village, and the area that had been File Island. They looked to the younger group. "We'll be in touch if anything goes wrong. Some of Mimi's little army will be close at hand- I've already contacted them- but if it gets bad, we'll email, so keep your D-Terminals on you at all times. Email us if there's any change with Matt, or any news of.. of anything, really."

T.K., Davis, Kari and Cody nodded, with the Cody. promising to tell Yolei when he got home.

T.K. opened the first portal, and Izzy, with some of Joe and Yolei's supplies, went through. Sora followed soon after.

" I guess that's that, then." Tai said. " Come on, Kar, It's getting late." Slowly, the remaining Digidestined left, not knowing what tomorrow would bring. Still, they'd fought off the gears and won, and they were prepared now. Courage blazed, and hope. They'd find Devimon, and defeat him. Together, they were unbeatable.

T.K. remembered what Kari had said earlier. " We've got to believe that everything will work out. And it will." "_It will. It will._" T.K. thought. "_It's got to."_

* * *

><p><strong>Oh look, I'm so nice! I didn't leave you with a Really Terrible Cliffhanger this time!<strong>

**And according to my plan, next time won't be Evil either. After that, though, I promise nothing. Anyway, I hope you liked it, and aren't too upset at how long I took. In my defense, I had finals, and then a single week to see my cats and friends and family and gran, and V, and it was all very hectic. I wrote most of this on a five hour bus ride. not fun. So review! And check out the blog. I'm getting caught up with notes on A captive Light at the moment, but in the next week or so, expect to see stuff about A Fading hope. Once I'm up to date- in a few weeks, you'll start seeing progress reports and previews and will have a nice venue for telling me to hurry up and post.**

**Thanks for reading( and reviewing?)**

**~Hedgi**


	6. On Our Own

**Author's note: Hi people! So glad to see you all again. I'd have gotten this up even sooner, but my new classes are... odd. Oh, right. My school is weird and will not have the big break till August( but my vacation goes until December) so don't think that summer will mean faster updates. Sorry. But in the fall, I'll probably get much more written. In any case, I'll try to keep updates every 3-4 weeks. The blog- From Hedgi's Head- is up and running, if you feel inclined to check it out. Anyway, on to the next chapter.**

**This chapter is dedicated to MerryB. Happy birthday, Merry!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. In fact, I don't own much of anything. I'm a poor college student. But I own this story, and I will defend that right with pillows and swords swimming pool noodles. Probably.**

* * *

><p><em>The stars fade<em>

_The night shade_

_falls and makes the world afraid_

_It waits in silence for the sky_

_to explode..._

_~Man's Road_

_Chapter Five: On Our Own_

* * *

><p>Tentomon lifted one of Izzy's grocery bags, hovering just above the ground. " Oof! What's in here, Izzy? Bricks?"<p>

"No, supplies. We- Sora and I- we might be here a while. At least for a few days, and maybe longer, if I can't find another way to track the gears. And anyway, Joe thinks we ought to keep some stuff in the Digital World just in case. Be prepared, you know. Don't you remember what happened when that portal opened over the summer?"

" You have a point. How could I forget?" Tentomon shook his head. " Did Tai ever find his shoes?"

"What do you think?"

" So.. that's a 'no'."

"Exactly." Izzy laughed, shifting the other bag from one hand to the other. "Alright, lead on."

"Follow me!" Tentomon buzzed before flying off.

A small cave came into view, and Izzy pulled the print out he'd made of his map. There it was, marked in purple, a small rock formation, his camp. To the south and east, where Sora's red marker stood out, was a large lake, and forest- and primary village couldn't be far from there either, if the map was right. ( It had always puzzled the redhead that that particular bit of File Island had become a part of Server before the defeat of the Dark Masters, at least according to Joe. Maybe he'd finally get a chance to dig deeper into that.) Evenly spaced between Izzy and Sora lay the yellow marker Izzy'd chosen for the amusement park, and a long arm of desert.

Izzy looked over one shoulder. He couldn't see the sand, but it was there. It wasn't as big, he'd noted on his map research trips, as it had seemed when he'd been ten, but it was still vast. They'd wandered in that wasteland for days, trying to find Tai, and then he'd gone off alone, with only Tentomon for company...

Mountains loomed, far off, to the east. So little had happened that far out, but still, he wondered if he ought to have sent Sora, or placed himself farther from File.

No. File and the parts of Server it was closest to were likelier targets, and even if they weren't, the Gears would have to pass this way. Probably.

" Are you coming, or did you grow roots? I could use a new tree!" tentomon called back to Izzy, who'd stopped, lost in thought and memory.

"Right, sorry." Izzy shook his head, entering the cave. "And didn't Palmon offer to help you find a new tree?"

"She did. She forgot to mention that it was a bush. With flowers. No thank you!"

"Sorry, Tento. When this is all over, I'll help you find a non-floral, actual tree." Izzy said as he unrolled the sleeping bag Joe had somehow managed to fit in a plastic bag. "Do you think Sora's settled yet?"

"How should I know?" Tentomon cocked his head to one side, much like a small puppy or kitten might.

Izzy finished with the bedroll and pulled his computer from its case. "I'm going to Email Yolei. Anything you want to add?" Already, his fingers were flying.

"Nah. I'm going to patrol. Just because you're here doesn't mean I can't skimp on my duties as an official guardian of the Digital World."

"Right. Hurry back, I'll keep an eye on the video feeds. It's funny, even after they kids beat him, Ken never stopped the surveillance. Then again, he hasn't stopped me from using it either, so I guess that's a good thing. i've had to fix up the blind spots, of course, but..." When Izzy paused mid-babble, he noticed Tentomon had already gone. Shrugging, he went back to the email.

_Yolei and company,_

_All's well on my end. Arrived safely, no sign of danger. Tentomon and I took out the only Spire in the area, so digivolving's a go in case anything goes wrong. Nothing on the Feeds- I'll link them to you so you can keep another set of eyes on them. Tentomon's scouting at the moment. What's your status? Anything new?_

_-Izzy._

A reply came after a few minutes.

_Izzy,_

_All OK on this end too. Sora emailed. She and Biyo met up just fine. The Map and Feeds are working fine, no sign of gears. I'll have Davis keep an eye on them too. He said something about not having homework. Not that I'll stop watching, you can count on me! Poromon says hi. No news on Matt._

_Shoot, gotta go, still on shift. Keep us posted._

_-Yolei._

Izzy sat back. There wasn't much to do but think, keep an eye open for danger, and wait for Tentomon to return.

And worry. Reaching for the laptop, Izzy opened another set of tabs, looking through past footage of time spent on File, of the attacks, anything he could find. There had to be something...

* * *

><p>Sora smiled at her partner, reaching into her bag. "I brought you a treat. Chocolate milk." She handed the bottle to the pink digimon, who took it gladly.<p>

"Sora, I love you."

"What, for bringing you junk food? That's it?" the girl teased.

"_Sor-_ra. You know what I mean. I've missed you."

" I've missed you too, Biyo. I wish I could spend more time out here. I'm glad I can be here now. I just wish..." She sat down, hugging her knees. " I just wish it were for different reasons."

Biyomon patted her shoulder. " I know, Sora. I know. We all do."

Sora buried her face in her hands. " I just feel so.. so helpless. Like the last time something like this happened. I was stuck with Mimi and we couldn't _do _anything. What if it hadn't been ok? I mean.. What if _this_ ..." her shoulders heaved once, but Sora shook herself. " I'm sorry, Biyomon. I don't mean to be so down." She turned to face the lake, cool and clear. She'd spent more than one night camping in this place, back during the first adventure.

" It's ok, Sora." the bird digimon smoothed her feathers, then leaned up against her friend. "You're worried about Matt."

Sora nodded. "I don't know what I'll- What we'll do," she confessed. "If.. if something happens... if it doesn't...I just don't know."

" Sora? Please don't be sad. We're all worried, but we need to believe we'll solve this. And we will. We won't stop till we do, we're the Digidestined."

Sora nodded. " I know. I'm just... worried. Let's look around. It..It hasn't changed much."

" Nope!" Biyomon rose, flapping her wings. "I mean, the restaurant's gone, but that happened a long time ago. The ruins are still there, though. Digitamamon came through a few months ago to look over them, so he could build the new one. I dunno why he didn't just rebuild here, but he didn't, it's a lot further down. Kind of a shame too, I spend so much time in the desert, if he was a bit closer I could stop in for a snack sometimes. Oh well."

Sora smiled again. That was Biyo, always talking about something.

"I should email the others, let them know I got here, that we haven't been attacked or anything." Sora pulled a mini- laptop from her shoulder bag. It wasn't hers- she only had a desktop- but Izzy'd been working on fixing it up, and had said she could- she should- borrow it, so they could communicate better.

Perched on a tree stump, Sora typed a brief message.

"_Everyone, _

_Biyo and I are fine. Setting up camp. Nothing of note around, no spires. Will keep you posted. How's Matt? Please let us know if there's any change._

_~Sora._

The laptop screen darkened for a moment, then chimed. Email sent.

Rising, Sora stretched.

"Let's go back, Biyomon."

"Ok. I'm starving."

The girl shook her head with a laugh.

The sun shone dimly through the trees, hardly warming the forest, and Sora was glad of her green school jacket.

They reached the clearing where Sora'd left the bulk of the gear Joe'd sent with her- a tightly packed sleeping bag, foodstuffs, and a large first aid kit. As Biyomon helped herself to a bag of potato chips, Sora worked half heartedly on a history assignment. " That's one thing about the Digiworld," Sora said to herself. "The Internet sure is fast."

The computer screen dimmed again after a short while, accompanied by a _ping_- an email.

_Hi Sora,_

_Izzy's in place, and we've got most of the video feeds up. There are still a few blind spots, but better than nothing, right? There's nothing we can see in your area, but be careful anyway._

_T.K.'s back at the hospital- some of the test results are back, but it's all the same. He's stable, he's _fine_, he's just not responding to anything. They have a few new theories, but that's about it. The minute we've got news, you'll hear it._

_Gatomon says "Hi."_

_Kari._

Sora closed the laptop. No change. She hadn't expected that her going to the digital world would have magically cured her friend. Still.

Biyomon left for a time to do an aerial patrol of her territory, and returned just as the sun set.

A small campfire was built, and the two ate dinner-instant mashed potatoes and tinned tomatoes- in silence. At last Sora spoke, " You sleep first, Biyo. I've got some homework, and you've been flying all afternoon."

" If you're sure, " the bird digimon yawned, tucking her head under one wing at the foot of Sora's sleeping bag.

Sora stared into the flames, trying to pay attention to her science worksheet. The words blurred on the page, and she set it down, closing her eyes. "Please wake up, Matt. Please." she whispered before getting to her feet to walk over to the edge of the clearing. Putting one hand against a tree trunk, she stood, thinking.

"_A lot has changed since we were last here, me and Biyo. There are more trees, taller. and...and we've grown. but at the same time, nothing different. It's just Biyomon and me again...alone, trying to save our friend. Trying to find out what's going on. I guess some things never change." _ Sora smiled wanly. At least she wasn't still the child she had been, so helpless... uncertain... Or at least, she hadn't been. But now...

"_It's still the same. We don't know how to fight this, not really. With luck, Izzy will find a way to... to fix this. But...No. Don't think like that. No. Everything's gonna be fine, you'll see. Everything." _

The fire cracked, sending up a shower of sparks, startling her out of her thoughts.

The rest of the watch went smoothly, and Sora gently woke her slumbering friend. "It's your turn, sleepy."

Biyomon yawned, fluffed her feathers and stood. " OK, you rest now, Sora."

"Mmhmm," Sora crawled into her bedroll, half asleep already.

* * *

><p>The cave was lit by the blue tinged light of Izzy's computer screen alone." Prodigious," he muttered, typing rapidly.<p>

"_Mimi,_" he typed, fingers flying. "_Another portal should be opening up in the New York area in a few hours- it looks like it'll last a while, too. Come to the Digiworld ASAP. I'm in section 6, Sora'll be in 9. See you soon, Izzy."_

"This is good," the redhead said aloud. Tentomon rolled over in his sleep, but otherwise did not respond- not that Izzy minded. He liked thinking aloud. "If my theory about the digivices is correct, we'll need all the power we can get. I wonder if I should have asked Meems to bring her friend- what was his name? Markel? Micah? But there must be something, some connection between our digivices and Devimon. We were chosen to fight him for a reason, weren't we? Of course, this assumes it _is _Devimon, and not some new threat... still, those dreams must have meant something. Hmm. "

He typed a bit longer, then paused, fingers hovering, unsure of what to look for next. A sweep of the surveillance videos should nothing out of the ordinary. Izzy returned to his pondering.

"If it is Devimon, why attack now? He was beaten- wasn't he?- Last time, and we're more now, and stronger. Perhaps _he's_ stronger too. That would explain the gears not needing a digimon host to attack us. But how did he get back? All the digimon we've fought.. none of them came back.. well, Etemon, but he wasn't deleted. And Myotismon.. but there was a reason for that. A prophecy." Izzy put his head in his hands. "Think, Izzy, think. There must be something. Maybe I should write Gennai. It can't hurt." But Izzy didn't move to open the email program. The old man- spirit- digital guardian- yoda- whatever he was, had vanished two years before. the children had looked, sent emails, but it was as if the bizarre lake and underwater house had never existed. Digimon had said it was the way of the sages to vanish so they'd let it be. Now, Izzy wished they hadn't. Sure, he hadn't been the most reliable, but when everything had fallen apart, Gennai'd helped them, sending them information, the program that had saved Izzy's parents from the Bakumon, Prophecies..

Prophecies. That was it. Gennai had emailed him a few prophecies during their first adventure- one about Myotismon's rise, the one about the 8th child... a later one about a being from beyond the wall of fire... there, with the attachment message, " for old time's sake." It was the first Prophecy, the one about Devimon, the one Leomon had told them about, but longer.

" That's funny," Izzy squinted at the screen. the Digicode- the glyphs, was different. Older, probably. he couldn't make heads or tails of it, but luckily, there had been a translation. It offered nothing new, to Izzy's disappointment. Just that there would be children chosen to stop a great darkness, and the part Leomon had not known, about the smallest one destroying the first of the dark. TK and Devimon. But that was it, nothing about devimon rising again.

Tentomon poked Izzy's shoulder, causing him to jump.

"Sorry to disturb you, Izzy, but I think you should rest. You look like you're about to pass out."

Izzy nodded, still thining. " alright. wake me if there's anything."

" Of course."

* * *

><p>" Sora! <em>Sora<em>, wake up! _Wake up!" _Biyomon cried, jostling the girl awake.

" Wha-? What is it?" Sora sat bolt upright, rubbing her eyes.

"Danger! I don't know how I know it, but something bad is-" She was cut off by a low _boom, _in the distance.

"Quick, what's over there?" Sora asked, typing an urgent message to Izzy with one hand , groping for her digivice with the other.

"I don't know, come on! Someone could be hurt."

" Right. You ready?" Sora held up the light blue device, and it glowed.

**Biyomon, Digivolve to...Birdramon!**

Leaping onto the flaming bird digimon's back, Sora hoped they wouldn't be too late.

* * *

><p><em>Meep. Meep. Meep. Bwoing. Bwoing. Meep.<em>

Izzy sat up in alarm. Tentomon was hovering over him, wings a blur. Izzy's fce paled as he read the email Sora'd sent. It was brief.

_Danger. Follow digivice. Hurry._

"Tentomon, Digivolve!"

"You got it. **Tentomon, Digivolve to..Kabutarimon!"**

Later, Izzy would remember to be grateful that the cave opening was big enough for the large insect digimon to fly through, but for now, he kept his eyes glued to the speck on his digivice that was Sora's beacon. They'd only flown for a few minutes when they reached her, riding Birdramon.

" Sora!" Izzy shouted as he saw a blast of energy headed her way. Birdramon dodged it, flying deftly.

"**Aerial Attack!" **called the foe, eyes red with fire.

" _A Unimon," _Izzy realized, as it was his turn to dodge the attacks streaming from the winged digimon.

" It's attacking the Village!" Sora shouted, pointing down below, where a group of terrified Yokomon huddled. a small, crude village was in shambles, one hut in flames, others flattened. " He's got a gear, but I can't," Sora was cut off as she swooped down, low on Birdramon's back to knock a group of Yokomon out of the path of another attack. " I can't get at it from here."

The Unimon reared in mid-air, great wings flapping, another ball of energy forming at its horn.

"Kabutarimon, stop him!"

"**Electro Shocker!"**

The bolt of lightening struck the gear dead center, but it did not shatter.

" Again!" Izzy shouted as the Unimon turned on him.

" Birdramon, now!" Sora shouted at the same time.

"**Meteor Wing!" ** the great bird called, furling and spreading her wings like banners. As Kabuterimon's lightening struck Unimon's horn, the fiery darts struck home, dissolving the gear.

* * *

><p>It was some time before things were calm, and even then. Unimon, appalled at the damage he'd caused, had promised to help rebuild the village, but the leader of the Yokomon had declined. " We need a safer place. We canot stay near here, it is too close."<p>

" Too close?" Biyomon asked. "To close to what?"

"The mountain!" a Yoko squeaked, and others joined in. "The Mountain of darkness", "Great evil there, we know this," "Coming to find you, tell you, warn you." "And words on the wall," "the mountain and the wrecked home," they babbled, speaking over each other, on and on.

" Sora," Izzy said softly as the Yokomon continued to panic. " The Koromon Village isn't far from here, and there aren't many Yokomon. You take them there, Agumon says the Koromon love visitors, and you and I both n=know that's true."

" Me? What about you?"

"Something the Yokos said, and something I've been thinking about... I want to see this writing. One of them," Izzy pointed at the mass of pink digimon, " says there's a ruin, a wreckage, with old digicode on the walls. It might be important, I want to check it out."

" Alone? On..on _his_ turf? are you insane?"

" Kabutarimon and Unimon will come, and it shouldn't take you too long- you can come after me. I've got a feeling about this, Sora. trust me, I need to see that wall."

Sora sighed. " OK. But be careful. I'll meet you as soon as I've got the little ones taken care of."

Izzy nodded, before turning back to his partner. " Let's fly."

* * *

><p>Sora felt uneasy. The Koromon had been glad to take in the Yokomon, like she'd known they would, and the Digital world seemed peaceful, but still, she felt it. Something wrong, in the pit of her stomach. Already, Birdramon was flying fast, tracking Izzy by digivice.<p>

From the trees below, Sora heard a noise. She might have mistaken it for the wind, rushing past as they flew towards the West, and File, but it was deeper. Lower.

In the darkness,something even blacker gleamed, as it flew past, then doubled back. Sora's heart stopped- a gear. Then more, a dozen at least- her digivice was in her hand, ready to fire- the lead gear was upon her, any moment now she'd fall- when suddenly a burst of light came from the trees, and the night sky was as calm, silent, peaceful as it had been. Sora gasped for breath.

" What was that?" she breathed, searching the forest below, unable to see a thing. "What just happened?"

Birdramon just shook her head, still fling as quickly as she could. " I don't know. There were gears, and then they just vanished. I don't know how, but it's a miracle."

" A miracle," Sora repeated, gripping her digivice. It pinged once, softly. " Izzy should b close, below us. Let's hurry. I've still got a bad feeling.

The wall was crumbling, black with age and decay, but the glyphs were still there. Older.

" I can't read it at all!" Tentomon said, frustrated.

Unimon sidled from hoof to hoof. "It's Old Code. There are very, very few who can. I am not one of them. But this," he pointed at the wall with his horn, "is a copy. not the original prophecy."

"So it _is _a Prophecy, then?" Izzy asked, looking from his laptop screen to the wall, typing.

" Yes. Some glyphs remain the same. It speaks of the dark one, Devimon, and of another. A battle," Unimon indicated another glyph. " But that is all I can comprehend, other than that this is a copy. Old, yes, but these walls are not so old as Old Code."

"Right," Izzy muttered, looking up from the screen again. " Hey, look." he pointed to a section near the end of the message. " Clawmarks- could they be Leomon's? He was the first to tell us about our role in fighting Devimon..."

" But.. he's gone," tentomon looked puzzled. Unimon nodded in agreement.

" But this is old. Perhaps he recorded it before..." Izzy frowned, looking again at the writing.

"It is possible, yes." Unimon conceded, looking over one shoulder.

Izzy didn't hear him, as he tried to translate the symbols. Consulting the first prophecy, and a few of the other bits of information stored away on the trusty laptop, Izzy typed.

" No.. that doesn't make sense... Maybe.. this?" He began, as the two Digimon watched him work.

"Izzy?" Tentomon said, flying to the doorway of the half standing house. " What's that?"

"Sora?" Izzy half turned, straining to see into the shadows. Unimon stiffened, and Tentomon turned back.

" Izzy, run!"

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><p><strong>Oh, I'm mean. I'm sorry. Ish. But last time I was nice and there was no cliffhanger, so it's time you had one. Plus, Cliffhangers get me reviews. I like reviews. Nice, non cliffhangers do not get me reviews. thus.. more cliffhangers. Sorry folks, but the data doesn't lie. Also, it's 2:30 AM, and I'm going to sleep now. So yeah. I liked focusing on Izzy. It was fun. This chapter was fun. Long, but fun. And so's the blog. Really, check it out, it's cool. I promise.<strong>

**Anyway, I'm about to keel over, so I'll leave you now. remember to click that shiny button. Good chapter, bad chapter, liked it, didn't.**

**~HNA**


	7. Stormclouds

**Author's note: Well, hi! Nice to see you all. The blog's completely updated, by the way, and I may be adding some fun things like 'deleted' scenes to it in the next few weeks. Don't worry, I'll still update on time. To dx1118, thank you for your review. I've answered in more detail on my blog, but the gist is this: if I don't specifically mention something's changed, it's still as it was in Canon. Some things have changed, as logic states, such as the younger kids already knowing about Wizardmon, but other than that, I've tried to fit the events of Captive Light into Canon. Still, if you look at the blog it should clarify things.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine. Dangit.**

* * *

><p><em>We were meant to open doors<em>

_And we were meant to face the danger_

_Never knowing what's in store..._

_~ I Will Believe*_

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Six: Stormclouds<span>

_T.K. stared up at the mountain, as the stone palace shuddered and burst, a great demon rising from its midst. Devimon. The shadowy Digimon rose, landing at the foot of the mountain, but so massive that the demon stood at eye level with the cliffs above the path. T.K blinked, pinned up against the stone wall by his own terror. Patamon lay on the ground close by, Tai further down the path, crawling, one hand held out._

_"Go!" he heard his friends call out, attacking with everything they had, only to be cast aside by the brown wrapped hands of Devimon. Then Devimon turned to him, a grin stretching across his dark face. T.K looked left, then right, but there was no where to run to, his legs were jelly as he pressed his back to the rough stone of the cliff._

_They were all there, Tai, Mimi, Sora, Izzy, Joe...Kari, with weakened champion digimon sprawled around the mountain and cliffs, unable to move. But.. no. That wasn't right._

_Kari shouldn't have been there, the part of his mind that knew this was a dream, a nightmare, a memory, screamed. She shouldn't be there, reaching out to him from just down the path, the ragged rocks and rubble from the palace surrounding her._

_"Matt!" His voice was small, his 8 year old lungs gripped tightly in panic as the hand drew closer, as if in slow motion. He looked down the cliffside to here Kari was,where Matt should have been, where he'd fallen hard. But not this time. His brother was gone. "Matt! Patamon! Help me!" The hand! Patamon dove, tears streaming from big blue eyes. Too late! The hand closed, pulling him away from the safety, the security, of the stone, squeezing tighter than the fear. The world went dark, Pain, he heard his name- "_T.K! **T.K**_**!**"_

_Then, nothing._

T.K. woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed. His nightshirt was sweat soaked, his sheets tangled around his ankles, the coverlet half off the bed. Even before his heartbeat slowed to normal, Patamon was awake.

"T.K? T.K, what is it? The dream again?" the little digimon questioned, blue eyes wide with concern.

Mouth dry, T.K. shook his head, then nodded. "It was... It was different this time," he said, trying to slow his ragged breathing. "A memory, only different. Kari was there, she was hurt. But... but she wasn't there. And Matt..."

Patamon fluttered his wings, hovering level with his human's face, only inches away in the dim room. "What was it? What memory? Was it..?"

T.K nodded slowly. "It was...It was that night. When Devimon...But not exactly. Matt wasn't there, he was just gone. And Kari was there. None of the other younger kids, and almost everything else, everything I can remember... it was the same. Except..." He stopped, a chill running down his spine, remembering the dream, the cold, the panic. The Darkness.

"Except for what,T.K?" Patamon's voice was low, gentle.

"You... you didn't get there...to me... in time."

Patamon landed on T.K's bed, reaching out with one small paw to touch the shaking boy's hand.

"T.K. I'm here. I will always be here. Don't cry."

T.K reached up with his free hand and hastily wiped the tears from his cheeks. He had to be stronger than this. For Matt, for everyone.

"And, T.K.? You're my best friend in the whole wide world. I will always get there in time."

T.K didn't say anything, but nodded, then lifted his head, glancing around the room. Glowing numbers on his digital clock announced that it was 6:03, the rest of the room dim with what little streetlight and mid-dawn glow filtered through the curtains. Something wasn't right, and even as he lay back down, he noticed what it was.

His D-terminal, sitting atop the wooden desk, was blinking, signaling a message had been sent to him.

Throwing the rest of the coverlet to the floor, T.K rose, padding across the room to the desk. Opening the email, his eyes scanned the message quickly.

"What is it?" Patamon squeaked, flying over to read the message from above T.K.'s left shoulder.

T.K.'s face had gone white, and he dropped the little computer. " Come on, there's no time," he hissed as he raced from his room, seizing his mother's cellphone from the little table in the hallway. He dialed the familiar number, letting it ring as he hurried back to his room, grabbing a coat and his digivice and D-terminal from the floor. Patamon hurried after him.

_Ring_

T.K. knelt by the door, stuffing his feet into his shoes.

_Ring._

_Ring._

"Hullo?" came a sleepy voice, followed by a yawn.

"Mr. Kamiya? I'm sorry to call so early," He unlocked the deadbolt, slipping outside with Patamon, then locked the door again. "I need to speak to Kari, or Tai, please."

"Hurrm? T.K.? That you?"

"Yes, I need to speak to Tai or Kari, it's an emergency."

"T.K, what is it?" Patamon hissed as they began to hurry down the balcony walk. T.K just held up the D-terminal.

"Justa sec," came the voice on the other end of the line.

T.K continued down the hall, reaching the stairs as he heard Tai's voice.

"T.K.? It's Six in the morning, what the- Oh, Oh gosh, is it Matt? What is it?"

"Check your Email, do it now, then both of you meet me at... at Izzy's campsite." T.K hung up before Tai could say anything, his fist pounding on Yolei's door.

A young woman, only a year or so older than Tai or Matt, answered, an angry look on her face. Her deep violet hair was messy, a robe pulled on over a green tank top and pinstriped pajama pants.

"What in the world-? Kid, it's early, what on earth do you want?" in one hand she held a large textbook, and as she glared, she seemed to recognize him. Her gaze softened. "Hang on, you're 'Lei's friend, aren't you. K.T.?"

Not bothering to correct her, T.K just nodded. " I need to talk to Yolei, It's an emergency. I'm sorry to wake you, but-."

"I was up. I've got a test in a few hours, and it's quieter in the morning. Come in, I'll get her." T.K stepped into the hall, watching the girl- Yolei's older sister, he realized, or one of them- go.

Yolei, still groggy and in a bright pink nightgown, clutching Poromon under one arm was in the front room in a matter of seconds. " Wha? Hana said," she yawned. " Said was an 'mergency." She snapped to alertness, clapping a hand to her mouth. "Did the Hospital call?"

T.K shook his head." No, I woke up.. and saw this-" he held out the email.

Yolei took the device, shoving her glasses onto her face. She read it, once. Twice. A Third time.

It was very short.

_Sent: 5:15._

_Everyone,_

_Sector 5._

_Help. Hurry. Hurt._

Yolei squeaked, then righted herself. "Do the others know?"

"I called Tai, he and Kari will meet us at Izzy's camp, I hope. You were closest."

"OK, You call Joe- and get Cody. I'll call Davis and..." she stopped, realizing that they were it. There was no Mimi to call, Sora and Izzy were in trouble, Matt was...

She didn't need to finish, T.K. was already gone.

"Hana?" Yolei called into the kitchen as she dialed Davis's number. "I'm going out in a minute."

"Kay. Just get your butt to school on time, little sister. Now shush, I've got to memorize six formulas. Formuli?"

Ignoring this, Yolei quickly told Davis to get to the digital world, Izzy's camp ASAP, and he didn't protest, saying he's be right there.

T.K returned, out of breath. " No answer at Cody's. Joe.. Will be here soon." Yolei nodded, pointing at her computer. " I'll wait for him, you go."

The portal came to life, sucking T.K away.

* * *

><p>The camp was deserted. It had taken only a few minutes for everyone who could to assemble, standing at the mouth of the cave. It was empty but for Izzy's supplies.<p>

"We've got to _go_." Davis said, pointing in one direction.

"Davish? Shector five is thatta way." Veemon corrected, pointing in the other direction.

"I knew that!"

"Shut up!" Yolei cried, startling Hawkmon and the still half asleep Kari. Suddenly, she started to cry. " I feel so bad. If I'd been keeping watch, I said I would, and I did, but it was so late, and Izzy said I needed to go to sleep, and now something awful's happened!" Hawkmon patted her knee with one wing.

"Davis is right," Kari said. "It's been an hour, we've got to hurry."

"Wait." Tai held up a hand. " Joe, I need you and T.K. to go to Sora's camp. If something bad happened to Izzy- and since section five's so close, and he's missing, I'm afraid something has- Something might have.. I need you to find her. Then meet us in section five."

"But, Tai! The email said "hurt"- what if-" Joe started, but Tai turned.

"Joe, if those gears come, I want someone with an older digivice with T.K. Agumon and I are the strongest- if whatever it is is still going down, or if there's an ambush..." he trailed off.

T.K. opened his mouth to protest- he had to help Izzy, it was because of Devimon that all this had started.

Davis spoke up. " No, T.K. Tai's right. Someone's got to find Sora... And I'm," he looked to the others. " We're not letting you go to File without all of us. Right?" Kari and Yolei paused, then nodded.

Patamon leaped onto T.K's shoulder. "They're right, . Sora might be in real danger too." T,K. nodded, head bowed. "Come on, Joe, Let's hurry."

holding aloft his digivice, he cried,

**"Digiarmour Energize!"**

**Patamon, Armor-Digivolve to….Pegasusmon!**

Joe and T.K mounted the flying horse digimon, taking off quickly. They flew for several minutes before spotting a clearing- a clearing with someone standing in the middle, waving both arms.

"Mimi!" Joe cried as they landed- hard.

"Joe! Oh, Joe, T.K! What is it, what's going on? Izzy sent me an email a few hours ago- last night for you guys, I guess- saying there was a portal, that I needed to get here. And before that- how_ could you not tell me_!" she was screaming now. "Matt, in the hospital, and you didn't even send me an email until the NEXT DAY?" she took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout, but..."

T.K. interrupted. "Mimi, where's Sora?" His stomach twisted. What if the email had meant both his friends? Or what if-

" I dunno, she wasn't here, no one was. Izzy said she'd be here, and neither will answer my emails..." she gasped, her dyed pink hair swinging. " Wait, why? Is.. Is there more..." it was Joe who filled her in, as T.K and Pegasusmon looked around. The remains of Sora's campfire lay in the center of the clearing, next to her sleeping bag and a sack of food- no backpack, or the little laptop.

"No sign of a fight," Pegasusmon commented. "Whatever happened, it wasn't here."

Joe nodded, reaching down and touching the ashes, wincing. "These are still warm... the fire can't have burned down too long ago, but it's been at least a few hours since the fire was burning." He frowned. "Why do I have a really bad feeling about all of this? Come on, we need to get to the others." The taller boy reached down to gather up Sora's things. " We shouldn't leave these in the open. Come on."

* * *

><p>Somehow they all managed to fit on Pegasusmon's back, and though they flew a bit slower than normal, the trees below raced past. Suddenly Mimi pointed. "Look there!"<p>

below them, a small patch in the forrest was bare- unnaturally so.

"Hang on." Pegasusmon called, turning to descend.

There was a stretch of trees that had been cleared, or so it had looked from above. Some trees looked to have been sliced in two, others were in chunks. Still more looked to have vanished all together, with only churned soil and grass to show where stumps might have been. "What could have done this?" Mimi asked, reaching down to touch a fallen sapling. She had tears in her eyes, but they had yet to fall.

"I dunno...Nothing good." T.K. frowned. This wasn't section five, on File, this wasn't even the woods near Izzy's camp, though it was on the way.

"Hey, look," Joe said, pointing. " Footprints."

"Are they Izzy's? Or Sora's?" Pegasusmon looked at them, tilting his head.

Joe knelt, then shrugged. " I can't tell. But they're heading towards..."

"The others." T.K. finished. He held up his digivice. "There's no one here, not close by anyway."

"Right. Let's go." Joe nodded.

Spotting Tai, waving at the sky, they landed at the edge of the forest. Or rather, Mimi noted, a clear space that had been forest. The same destruction had happened here as before, trees lay uprooted, slashed length wise. Tai and Yolei were hunting, but Kari and davis were no where in sight.

"Mimi?" Yolei asked, smiling for the first time that morning. The two embraced. "Where's Palmon?"

"She's still guarding her area-I only got here a few minutes ago, really. What's going on? All I know is that Izzy and Sora were here last night and now.." She turned on Tai, "and why did no one tell me about Matt until YESTERDAY?"

"Mimi, I-"

"GUYS!" Davis shouted, waving his arms. "Come on!" He was sitting on Raidramon's back, pointing down the sloping hill. "This way, we found- hurry, come on!"

The group tore down the hill, feet pounding. Through the thinned trees, T.K. could make out stone walls, old, crumbling. _"I've been here.. I know I have..."_ But even as the full ruin came into view, he couldn't pinpoint it.

Kari knelt on the ground, Gatomon next to her.

"Sora!" Tai cried, seeing his fallen friend. Agumon, close at his heels, ran forward.

The girl lay on the ground, unconscious. Close by, a stone pillar lay on its side, cracked. Joe ran forward, first aid kit in hand.

Kari held Sora's hand.

"She's breathing..She's just passed out, I think. She managed to bandage her leg... and look." Kari held up the small laptop that had been next to Sora.

"So Sora sent the email. But where's Izzy?" Tai asked, looking from side to side in unease. There was something unsettlingly familiar about the gutted building, but he couldn't place it.

"I..I don't know, we found Sora and ran for you." Davis hunched his shoulders. "Raidramon and I'll go check in the ruins."

"Not without us." T.K. said, folding his arms. Pegasusmon glowed, then reverted to Patamon. "Right."

Joe waved them ahead. "I don't think her leg's broken, but it's a bad cut. It looks like that pillar fell and she hit her head. It's lucky she was able to bandage her leg and send that email." He looked pensive for a moment, digging through his bag for more bandaging, then stopped. " Um, if Sora's here.. where's Biyomon?"

Kari called out from a stand of trees. "Here! Joe, It's...It's Yokomon!" The little digimon was only half awake, trembling. "Sora... Sora..." she muttered, then seemed to realize who was cradling her. " Kari? Kari, where's Sora? It was horrible..."

"She's ok, she's ok." As Kari approached Sora and Joe, the older girl stirred. " Joe...? What... What's happened? There was...an explosion. Where's Izzy?" her breath caught as she blinked, waking. " Biyomon!"

"I'm fine, Sora." the pink digimon said, leaping from Kari's arms.

"Thank goodness." Sora hugged her digimon, then looked up at Joe and Kari. "How did you find me?"

"Your email." Kari held up the black computer, offering it to her friend. "T.K. discovered it. What happened last night?"

"Izzy went to find out something... the Yokos said there was something here... I came after him, but there was ...I don't remember. Gears, and a Unimon...the pillar fell, and... wait! Izzy! Where's Izzy?"

"The others are looking for him now. They'll find him and Tentomon, no problem." Gatomon purred.

"Hmm." Sora nodded, closing her eyes briefly. "Ouch, my leg's killing me."

Joe hurried to find a Tylenol, handing it over quickly.

* * *

><p>Tai entered the burned out ruin first, eyes adjusting to the dim light.<p>

"Spread out, we've got to find Izzy."

"We'll go up there," Yolei offered, pointing at a rather rickety set of stairs. Hawkmon nodded, saluting, and they left quickly. Mimi followed, glancing over one shoulder.

Davis followed T.K. and Tai down a small passage, littered with rubble. Entering a long room, Tai stopped short, and Patamon let out a squeak. Raidramon glowed faintly, returning to his rookie form. Suddenly, Tai drew up short, with t.k only a pace behind him.

"What? What is it?" Davis hissed, trying to peer around them.

Tai just shook his head, walking slowly across the room. Sitting on the floor, at the base of a wall covered in runes, was a sight that chilled they three boys' blood.

T.K. reached it first, kneeling beside Izzy's slightly battered, yellow laptop. The power light flickered, glowing, then dying completely.

"Izzy wouldn't have left this." Agumon whispered.

A faint whimper came from one corner of the dark room. Davis and Veemon ran to it, crying out in shock as they uncovered the tiny form of a digimon.

"Motimon!" Patamon called, fluttering over as T.K followed. Tai lifted the laptop, tucking it under one arm.

"Motimon, what happened?Where's Izzy?"

"I don't know!" the terrified digimon wailed, tears in his eyes. " He was typing, and Unimon said to run, and there was an 'splosion, and ... and I..."

"Shhh. It's OK. It's going to be OK. We'll find him, Motimon." Tai soothed, before looking to the others. "He's not here, I don't think. We need to regroup. Whatever's on this," he indicated the laptop, " is important, and Sora should get to a hospital, or at least her own bed."

"Come on. I don't like this place." Agumon shuddered, looking around furtively. "It gives me the creeps." The others nodded in agreement.

"Let'sh find the girlsh," Veemon said, pointing to the stairway. But they didn't have to go up, for already the two were descending. "Nothing!" Yolei spat. " There's nothing up there- just floor and some bits of wall. It's a great view, but no sign of anything!"

"Yolei!" Hawkmon bent to the floor at the foot of the stairs as the boys reached them. "Look, it's.."

"I don't believe it!" Yolei took the small blue digivice Hawkmon offered her, turning it over in her gloved hands. "He'd never just leave this," she looked up at Tai, who was taller than her despite her above average hight.

"Or Motimon- Tentomon's smaller form." Tai's face was grim. "Or his laptop."

Mimi covered her face with her hands. "Oh, no." She whispered, tears pricking at her eyes. "He's in real trouble. Oh, Tai, what do we do?"

It was Davis who answered. "What we always do. Save the day. We find him, we kick Evil's butt, we...we have to," he finished.

They left the shadows of the ruins, solemn. The sun was bright outside, and T.K glanced at his wrist watch. 7:30. Joe and Kari had helped Sora to her feet, and Yokomon was munching a granola bar happily.

"Guys." Tai motioned for everyone to gather. He looked everyone in the eye, his face set.

" You didn't find him?" Sora asked weakly, leaning heavily on Joe's shoulder.

Agumon shook his head.

"No." Davis said, "but we will." He still held Motimon, cradled in the crook of his elbow. The little digimon was quivering.

"Where do we start?" Kari asked, putting a hand up to where her necklace used to hang. so many weeks, and still she sought the imitation crest in times of danger, fear, uncertainty. her first closed around empty air, and she lowered it, remembering.

Tai shook his head. "We don't. It's a wild goose chase right now. Without his digivice-" Yolei held it out for the others to inspect, "There's no way to track him."

"But we can't just-" T.K. exploded.

"We aren't going to abandon him." Tai cut him off sharply. Then his face softened. " I'm sorry, T.K. I didn't mean to yell. But we need to find out what happened. Motimon's in no condition right now, so our best chance is whatever video we can access from Ken's cameras."

Kari nodded once. It made sense.

"Look," Tai said. "You kids need to get to school. Someone needs to tell Cody what's happened, and we don't want your parents to panic if you aren't in classes. And Sora..."

Joe cut in. "It's a nasty gash, but it's not bad enough to need a hospital. She should rest it though- and not here. She needs a real bed."

"I'm fine!" Sora put in, trying to stand on her own. Her leg crumbled beneath her, and Kari caught her. "No, you're not."

"What do we do.. about..." Davis pointed to Motimon. "I mean..."

"I'll take him, Davis." Tai offered. "Someone ... should tell his parents what's happened. And we might need some of his computer equipment."

"Uh, Tai? None of ush know how to _ushe_ any of that shtuff." Veemon pointed out.

Tai turned to Yolei, holding out the laptop.

"Yolei, I think you should take this."

"What? Me?"

"Why not, Yolei? You're skilled with computers." Hawkmon pointed out.

"But me? No, I can't." She shook her head, hands held up. She looked at the battered computer, cradled in Tai's arms. "I'm.. I.." she said again helplessly.

" Sure you can," Davis brightened. " Like Hawkmon said, you're great with computers. You spend so much time with them, and with Izzy. You're practically Izzy junior! I mean.. like, the computer expert of..us five." He blushed, rambling. "You know what I mean."

Mim took Yolei's hand. " Yolei, can you work Izzy's map?"

The younger girl nodded. " I think so. He showed me, once."

"And can you get into those camera systems?" Another shaky nod.

"Then you're are best bet. Our only bet."

Tai held out the computer again. "You're the only one who can, and whatever's on this computer- whatever he was working on- it's got to be important."

"You can do it, Yolei." Patamon chirped from T.K's shoulder.

"Yeah," Gatomon added.

The others nodded in agreement.

Yolei bit her lip, the nodded. " I'll try." She took the laptop, hugging it tightly to her chest.

"Let's go. We've got a lot to do." Agumon said, pointing with one claw into the wood where the small TV set lay.

With one last look at the strange stone structure, the children left, more worried than ever.

* * *

><p><strong>Hi! Did ya like it? I sure hope so, it took a lot of work. I hope I did well remembering all the characters- I keep forgetting the poor digimon and having to mess around with dialog.<strong>

**How crazy was that, though? And how utterly Not Good is this whole mess? Things are looking grim, aren't they? Has anyone figured out the code? If you have, let me know and you'll get a sneak preview of the next chapter! Also, I really do encourage checking the blog out- fromhedgishead (blogspot). Any questions you have, provided they aren't super spoilerific, I'll address, not to mention information on the songs( and thus the code) AND some deleted scenes in the next few weeks.**

**Anyway, review! It's always a treat, and I'd love to hear from you guys- thoughts, opinions, questions and comments- even it's to tell me off for what torment I'm inflicting on our beloved heroes. especially for that.**

**Have a great day- and enjoy what's left of the three day weekend!**

**~HNA**


	8. Note

Hi.

As you can see, this is not a chapter.

No, still not a chapter. It won't be if you close your eyes and count to ten or twelve of 42. it's not a chapter.

Sorry.

I normally wouldn't put a note here, but I feel like I ought to tell the two dozen of you that I assume are reading, based on the alerts list:

I won't be updating for a while. not a while like two weeks or a month. Don't expect anything for another two months at least.

I'm entering the second half of my second Semester of College, and It's getting really hard. On top of the coursework, which has taken a sudden turn for the worse- to paraphrase " a Little Princess": " I swear, those teachers have a pact with Satan to destroy me." I have no time to sit down and write, not the kind of time I need to a story like this- I take six or seven hours on each chapter, plotting, writing, editing, re-writing, typing... And for the next several weeks I will not have that time.

That's not the only reason, though, and it's not the biggest reason.

As some of you may know from earlier Author's notes or my profile, about 20 mouths ago I was tentatively diagnosed with Hypo-Mania, a form of Bi- Polar. It was only Tentative because I didn't get a second opinion, didn't go to a specialist, didn't get drugs for it- it was very mild- I had to put up with some despair for a day or two every so often, but the year and a half that followed were not so hard. I had friends, a boyfriend, easy classes and Very little stress. I could handle it. the highs were great, and the lows were.. not too bad. a day or so of tears, and then the sun would rise, and I'd be ok.

These past few months have been Hell. I thought I could handle it, like I have, but the depression is stronger than before, and more often. rather than once every two or three months, I've had five emotional breakdowns in the last month. Four of those were in the last 10 days. I find myself so completely in despair, for no "good reason" and I can't think, let alone write, properly. It's going to take all I have to do the five billion or so essays my teachers have loaded me down with, and the last thing I want to do is write this story. Like I said, it's going to get darker, and If I keep writing it in the state I'm in, nothing good will come of it, not for the characters, not for me. It's been really, really, really hard, these last few weeks, and i've tried to stay sane and keep up, but I. Just. Can't. Not anymore. I'm going to talk to someone about this when I get home, but that's 7 weeks away.

The last reason is I just don't feel like anyone cares. Before I left for school, I knew and spoke daily to some readers, but I don't have anyone to talk to about the story. I created the blog for that purpose, but it's been a dud. And I know it's childish and petty and stupid, but hell, I'm Hypo-Manic and possibly worse and spent the last five hours on a bus, crying because of other petty, childish, stupid things because that's how my brain works: The last chapter took a lot out of me. I slaved over that thing, and produced the longest of chapters thus far, and with a cliffhanger to boot. I got two reviews. out of the two dozen people on the Alerts list and the 18 people( some overlap) who have it on their favorites, only two people took a second to say, "thanks." And I know it's petty and stupid and childish to be that pain in the rear girl that says she won't update unless she get's five reviews, but it HURT. It really did. And I'm sorry for yelling, or scolding or whatever I'm doing, but...Anyway. I'll try to keep up with the blog. just little notes about the story, for anyone who does care. little things, like how i'm doing. maybe some of the music I was listening to as I wrote.

I just feel like no one really cares about the story, not enough for me to work on it above all the other crap I'm dealing with.

pardon my language. And grammar.

Anyway. Too Long, Didn't read: School is awful, I have mental disorders, no one cares: I'll update in August, assuming I'm not dead.

Love,

Hedgi.


	9. Writing on the Wall

**Hi, all. Thank you so much for your kind words these last two months. I was having a time of it, but now that classes are done( until December, whoo!) and I'm on mood stabilizers, I'm doing much better. I've been keeping up the blog, and all these songs , as well as some others I've been listening to as I write can be found there.**

**Again, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart. You've all been so wonderful, and it means a lot to me.**

**This Chapter is dedicated to CrestofLight3, KHLostEmpress and the old lady from Allegiant flight 1401 (who will never read this, but whatever.) For the story behind _that,_ check out the blog.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own digimon. Shocker.**

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><p><em>Now realize the stars<em>

_they die._

_Darkness has fallen_

_in paradise._

_But we'll be strong_

_and we will fight_

_against the creatures_

_of the Night._

_~ Angel of Darkness_

Chapter seven: Writing on the wall

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><p>Since Yolei was in Cody's first class, she had filled him in in hushed tones about the morning's adventure and the unknown fate of their friend. Cody'd whispered back that he was sorry he hadn't been home, hadn't been there to help, but that he'd been out with him mother and grandfather- it was an annual tradition. Yolei noted that he'd seemed even quieter and more solemn than normal, and hadn't pushed it. Her mind was already worrying the issue of her new responsibility like a bad tooth, and she could hardly think of anything else.<p>

She did not make an appearance at lunch that day. After several long minutes of waiting, Davis and Cody searched the school for her, their digimon clutched under arms. Kari and T.K. ignored their trays of food, calling Tai and T.K's mother for news and updates. There was little to report- Tai had not wanted to speak about his visit to the Izumi parents, and Matt had not changed at all. The tests had been inconclusive, and doctors were still as confused as ever about the teenager's condition.

It came as little surprise to the boys that they found their violet haired friend tucked away in at a corner desk of the school computer lab, the second place they'd checked, after the library. The room was noisy with students printing off last minute book reports and essays, but Yolei didn't seem to hear. She sat, in front of the charging laptop, her face red, her eyes shut, her fists clenched. Even Davis hardly dared to speak- he was acting so unlike himself these past few days that he scared himself- but everything was so ... so wrong. "Yolei?"

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><p>Yolei sighed.<em> "Maybe Tentomon- well, Motimon, I guess - knows the password. I'll have to ask. Whatever Izzy was working on, it must have been really important. I hope so, anyway."<em>

Again, she felt a pang of fear in her heart. Izzy, missing. Matt, unconscious - what would be next? _Who_ would be next? Briefly, she wondered if Ken might be behind the attacks, but... no. Ken had realized the Digital world was no game, that people really got hurt. He'd learned that the Digiworld was deadly serious, and when Wormmon had... had died? Had been deleted, hadn't Ken broken down, like they had when they'd thought T.K. was gone? And then there was the reaction of the older kids... _There's something going on, something big but they won't tell us. T.K.'s been way more on edge lately, even before this mess started. And didn't Poromon mention that Patamon said he hasn't been sleeping well? _She resolved to get to the bottom of this, whatever it was, as soon as humanly possible.

Footsteps.

She opened her eyes, unclenched her fists and started to type, fingers flying as she tried to run another program on her small computer, connected by a cable to Izzy's larger laptop.

"Yolei?"

Davis's voice. Yolei looked up. Some of the other kid's did too, he'd spoken loudly. they glared, but Yolei smiled weakly. "Hi." She sighed.

"Are you ok?" Cody asked, motioning to the computers.

" No." she said shortly. Cody drew back. Upamon squeaked quietly, and Cody looked down at the little digimon, worried.

"Sorry, Cody. The username came up automatically, IKIzumi1024, but the password- no luck. I'm just so frustrated!" She hit the table, palm down. A few of the older students turned their glares on her, but she didn't notice.

"Do you know where Tai took-"

"Motimon?" Davis finished. " yeah. Kari's been on the phone with Tai. Motimon's with the Izumis. It's lucky, that they know about," he flapped a hand wildly, " all this."

Cody's thoughts flew to his own family. what would his mother do, his grandfather, if he was in Izzy's shoes, missing; or Matt's, in the hospital; or...He didn't let himself think that last, terrible what if. "_No_" he ordered himself.

Yolei only nodded. "Yep. Well, I guess _that's_ where I'm headed after school. Maybe one of his parent's knows, or it's on his desktop, in case Motimon doesn't know, or can't remember, or something."

The poor digimon had been in a complete panic, reminding Yolei terribly of when Davis and T.K had found Gatomon, alone in the desert sectors after Ken had taken her.

The bell rang suddenly, jolting the children. Yolei hurried to pack away the two computers: her own, and the badly battered yellow pi-book. " I'll meet you back here after class, before I go." She called to the two boys as she hurried to her class, stomach growling- she hadn't eaten a bite of her lunch.

Classes dragged, on and on, taking at least twice the time it seemed they usually did.

Davis wanted desperately to go back to the digital world to search for Izzy, as did everyone else. Fingers tapped and eyes glanced unceasingly at the clocks that seemed hours too slow.

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><p>At last, the final bell of the day rang, setting them free. T.K wanted to ruin right to the hospital, but at the same time wanted to tear apart the Digital world to find his missing friend. He still felt guilty- If only he'd been awake, if only he'd checked his email sooner, if only he'd gotten there sooner, if only-<p>

He stopped as Patamon climbed out of an abandoned locker (it had once been packed with jelly, and was still sticky, so no one ever used it, not even the girl it was assigned to, May.)

" T.K." the little orange bat-pig said after making sure no one else was paying attention, "If you don't stop blaming yourself, I'll bite you. Don't think I won't." He smiled pleadingly.

T.K. nodded, but Patamon knew his human's heart wasn't in it, and let out a sigh. "Poromon said to meet in the computer lab." The digimon said after a long moment. Again, T.K. nodded, and they went off together.

The band of Digidestined met in the computer lab- much to their relief, the detention( or club or whatever it was that had taken over the room, had moved to the gym for the month.)

Tai and Joe, along with Mimi, were already there, and as T.k entered, Kari followed, Gatomon in her arms. T.K. held the door for her, and she smiled gratefully. It was only a minute before Cody arrived, panting, with Davis and their Digimon.

Yolei, clutching the pink ball of feathers that was Poromon under one arm and the Pi-book under the other, shouldered her way in, already shaking her head.

"I can't crack it!" she wailed. "I'm just not that good! Agh!"

Tai blinked. " What?"

"Izzy's computer. There's a password, and I just don't know! I've tried birthdays, names of parents, important dates, names of friends, I even ran a little program I've been working on, but I can't get it. It was a stupid program anyway. Ugh! I feel so useless!"

Poromon cheeped something inaudible to her person, and Yolei sniffed loudly.

Tai thought hard. Hadn't Izzy once given him his password? It had been years ago, he'd probably changed it, what had it been?

He held up one hand. "I think... Agumon might know it. I know I've heard it, but I just can't remember."

Yolei nodded, " If not, I was going to," she paused, then said in a small voice, " ask Motrimon." Tai nodded. " He's at Izzy's place. He was doing a bit better when I left, but..."

Davis interrupted, squaring his shoulders. "Lets go. We can ask Agumon and look for more clues and Izzy at the same time." At Davis's feet, munching a chocolate bar, Demi-Veemon nodded vehemently.

Joe agreed, taking Mimi's hand. " Sora's settled back home right now, but she told Mimi what she remembers. We thought you should all know. Meems?"

Mimi shook her pink hair out of her face. "She was protecting the Yokomon, and Izzy went to check out the wreckage- something the Yokomon said about the ruin made him want to. She came after him as soon as the Yokos were safe with the Koromon, but by then..." Mimi bit her lip, then continued. "Anyway, on her way to him, she was attacked, by those gears, a lot of them, out of nowhere." She shot a look at T.k, who cringed. " But something destroyed them. She wasn't sure what, but it could be-"

"Trauma. She may have just forgotten." Joe put in.

"Right. She reached the ruins, and suddenly Birdramon shouted for her, and a pillar fell towards her- that's the last thing she really remembered - she didn't even remember sending that Email or bandaging her leg."

Everyone let out the breath they'd been holding as Mimi spoke with her usual dramatic flair.

"Should we go?" Cody asked, not rudely, but with a slight edge.

"Right." T.K held out his green and white digivice,and called, " Digiport open!"

The trip was short, and as bright as ever, and soon the children and digimon were standing only a shirt distance from the edge of trees that hid the ruins, blinking in the sunlight. They walked through the rubble, again, searching for anything that might hint at what had occurred in the wee hours of that morning.

"There's something about this place," Mimi fretted, looking around anxiously before putting her mind to composing a message for the collection of digimon that affectionately called themselves "Mimi's Army." Yolei looked on, interested, and tried more combinations of letters, numbers and words, each time the password she'd attempted being rejected with a ping. She tried computer terms, Digital World places, even, in desperation, "password."

Nothing.

As she groaned in frustration, Hawkmon patted her arm with a wing, soothing her. "Agumon will be here shortly. Now, Yolei, I must go fly my patrol, but I'll stay close. Don't hesitate to call upon me if or when the need arises." He took off, joining a group of friendly Zhannemon circling above. With Biyomon and Tentomon both of of commission for the time being, Hawkmon had joined some of the allied Zhannemon to take over their patrols, looking for Izzy, Gears, or anything out of the ordinary.

While he patrolled, the others searched, mostly in the surrounding woods before returning to the ruined building. Hawkmon returned, quite soon, and Yolei looked up questioningly. "More of the Zhannemon joined us." he offered, before reporting to Joe with a salute. "No sign of more gears, on news of attacks since the Yokomon last night, but more Spires are gone, more than Mimi's Army can usually take down in a day." Joe wrote it all down in one of his thick black notebooks.

"That's strange. I wonder..." Joe at down to ponder. Gears returning, spires of dark energy vanishing... it had to be connected, somehow.

Tai and Davis, along with T.K., Kari and Cody returned again to thew woods, searching even farther out, the digimon tense and ready. Their eyes were peaked for anything- more broken branches, gashed trees, any sign of anything- even if it was only a scrap of green jacket- anything that could point them in the right direction.

Kari was searching just off a narrow path, Gatomon and cody with Armadillomon close by, when she heard a loud snap. She stiffened, one hand going to her digivice, the other closing on empty air at her neck- no crest, fake or otherwise- to cling to.

A shape appeared in the woods, leaves rustled, Kari's breath caught in her throat, and-

"Agumon, you scared us half ta death!" Armadillomon chided, going to greet the yellow dinosaur digimon.

Kari released her digivice, and Cody did the same, calling on his Kendo practice mindset to calm his racing heart.

It worked. Ish.

"Hawkmon said Yolei needed me?" Agumon asked walking with the four back to the path and then to the clearing and the crumbling structure.

_"This place gives me the creeps!"_ thought Kari

She stared at the dark entrance to the ruin as the others left her behind. It was almost as if it was... calling to her? No. "Get a hold of yourself, Kari. It's a ruin, a house, not-" her mind flew to the Dark Ocean. There had been buildings there, could they be connected? they had almost the same feel, but this was different. Older. She took another step forward, Gatomon ahead of her with Tai and Davis, who combed the main hall.

She was stopped by Yolei's cry of "Perfecto! Everyone, we got it! We got it! Agumon, I could kiss you!"

"Please don't," was Agumon's reply, but he was laughing as he said it.

The searchers hurried from the ruin, a bit dusty but all accounted for, and they gathered around the computer screen. It glowed strongly, even in the bright sunlight, and Yolei typed, opening the retrieval program.

"There!" she clicked on the file that she'd managed to save- whatever Izzy'd been working on when the computer had died. There was only one file, a word document that was titled simply, Trans. frm. Rns.

It was no less cryptic than Izzy himself, in full Techno-Babble mode, but this was no Techno Babble. That, Yolei felt, would be much easier to understand.

This, whatever it was, was a twisting mess of words and blank spots.

The Dark One rise,_,faced with Bright Power(?) Darkness falters, and stronger, shadows will _ _ the Small One. Darkness will _ _, forever engulf(?) the world, unless Smallest_ _ remember(?) _ _ and calls upon the Bright, for only the Smallest can defeat the Shadows. Danger Comes_ _, Small One beware. Mornie utulie(?), Smallest Alone can_ _ _but not alone. Soon, Éadóchas a thagann(?) The Dark One_ _Rise, An t-ardú Sun(?), the Smallest can defeat the Shadows.

"A propheshy!" Veemon cried. "It'sh a propheshy! Dark One, Shmall One...Shomthin' in another language, too."

"What does it even mean?" Davis scratched his head. "It sounds.. dark."

"Gee, what tipped you off? 'Darkness, Dark One, or Danger comes'?" Gatomon asked, tilting her head.

T.K was very, very pale. Patamon wrapped his paws around the blond boy's ankle, and squeezed. "T.K.? Look at me. It's ok. Prophesy or no."

"What is it?" Kari turned to her friend. She was shivering- Davis was right, as obvious as it seemed. It was Dark. She could feel it. " T.K, are you alright?"

It was Joe who spoke, Joe who remembered. " The Small one. That's what Devimon said, isn't it?Before?"

"Devimon? Who's that?" Cody voiced what all the new Digidestined were thinking. Tai looked at T.K, then said simply, "He was the first evil digimon we ever faced. He was convinced that "the little one" or " the small one" or " the smallest" or something... convinced that person was destined to destroy him. We thought he was gone forever, but... He was the first master of the Gears."

There was silence and then " Why didn't you say something about this before?" Davis demanded. "Really, what's with you people and keeping secrets about the past?" Kari looked at her feet at that, remembering how grief and shock had caused her to practically bite the boy's head off when he'd commented that he would do something or die trying. Davis was right. Maybe they should tell all- but looking at T.K, she wasn't so sure. He shook his head, meeting her eyes. He didn't want to tell the story, to relive the story in words as well as in memory and thought. Kari understood. She had never wanted to speak of what had happened to Gatomon, and Wizardmon, what had happened to her. Somethings you couldn't bleed off, some things had to stay inside, behind glass walls. She nodded.

"It's something I don't think anyone wants to relive, Davis." She said, gently.

"And what's happened isn't the point, it's what's happening now." Joe put in. "History might-" he didn't dare say 'repeat'. " Devimon might be back. but this isn't four years ago. We're a lot stronger."

"So's he." Was all T.K. would say, numb.

"Oy! look at this!" Yolei called. "There's more. It just say's 'Smallest- who? T.K? K? C?' " she looked up. " I'm pretty sure Izzy means it could be you." She pointed to T.K. "Or you." Kari. "Or you." Cody.

The three Digidestined looked at each other, their faces pale. They gulped.

"So Devimon's gonna try and come after them?" Armadillomon cried,

"He can try." Gatomon hissed, flattening her ears.

Patamon clung to T.K, who bent down to stroke the little digimon. His hand shook.

"No. He'll be coming after me. He did before. He's been in my dreams." Air burst from his lungs, and he was very glad to be sitting.

Mimi came over and wrapped her arms around him. " T.K, we're all here for you. He won't win."

Tai moved closer, Agumon in tow. " Yeah. We'll teach Devimon a lesson. Don't worry."

"He may not come after you, T.K." Joe put in, trying to be helpful. "Kari and Cody, be very careful. It's most likely that Devimon'll think T.K's the Chosen one, since that's who he thought it was before, but neither of you were there, so it might be you, and he might know it. We should go. It's getting late, and I don't want to be here after dark."

"This places gives me the creeps. There's something familiar about it, but I just can't place it!" Put in Agumon, shuddering.

"Let's go, then." Cody said. "We can go see Matt, and try to figure out the Prophecy, or what we have of it. Joe's right."

"And I can search the video feeds, see if I can find anything from the attack this morning." Yolei said.

The others nodded, then looked to T.K., still crouched and petting Patamon.

"Uh-huh." he said, absently. "I..I... should go." Kari reached down and helped him to his feet, and he murmured, "Thanks."

They walked the few feet into the trees, opened the portal, and were gone.

As the sun set, darkness spread over the Digiworld.

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><p><strong>*holds breath.* Well? Did ya like it? I worked really hard on it. Did ya like the prophecy? Or people's reactions? Did I do a good enough job keeping the Digimon involved? I always forget about them, agg. Really, though, what did you think? Good chapter, bad chapter, liked it, didn't? Bonus preview to the first one to tell me what the other language is, and what the words mean. Also to whoever gets the song puzzle( you can just keep guessing, it doesn't matter if you're first or not)This one is Not a part of the puzzle. Bonus clues are on the blog.<strong>

**Thanks again for being such lovely readers. So much. Thank you.**

**Hedgi.**


	10. Destiny

**Hi everyone.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed. It really means the world to me. When I'm writing, I go back and look at them and remember that with work, I can write well enough that you actually like it! Also, I know lots of you are headed back to school or have already- best of luck to you, and I hope you have a great year!**

**Oh, right, I don't own digimon.**

_Love waits for me 'round the bend _

_Leads me endlessly on _

_Surely sorrows shall find their end _

_and all our troubles will be gone _

_And I'll know what I've lost _

_and all that I've won _

_when the road finally takes me home._

_~Going Home_

Chapter Eight: Destiny

T.K. walked briskly down the street, Patamon balanced carefully on his shoulder. The hospital was only a few more blocks, though it was starting to get dark. just ahead of him, the boy noticed a familiar figure, making her way in the same direction. She swung on crutches, though they hardly seemed to slow her down.

"Sora!" T.K called, then jogged forward to catch up.

"Hi, T.K. Hi, Patamon. I was just going to see Matt." She paused, then swung forward again. "T.K.? You look really pale. Are you ok?" Her brown eyes were filled with concern.

"It's what was on Izzy's computer. I don't want to talk about it."

She looked at him sharply.

"I really don't- call Yolei or something. I don't want to think about it anymore."

Sora nodded. "It's ok. I'll call Yolei. But.. just so long as you know that we're here." She left it at that. " Do you like my crutches? I swear, Joe is prepared for anything. He had these right in that closet of his- I don't know how he keeps all this stuff so organized."

She went on, and T.K. was glad to have something to think about besides Matt, besides Izzy, besides the Prophecy. Patamon snuggled his head into T.K's neck, and let out a soft sigh.

"Oh, here we are." Sora said, lurching through a set of sliding doors.

Jim met them in the front. "Hey, guys. I'll be right up, The latest blood work results should be back from the lab by now. you remember the room, right T.K? 413. I think your father's still there." He walked quickly away, calling the last over his shoulder.

T.K. and Sora took the elevator up, and walked down the clean, white and green tiled hallway. Matt's room's door was open, Mr. Ishida stood inside. "T.K." He hugged his younger son. "I was wondering if you'd show up. Your Mom'll be here any minute, I've got to get going. It's good to see you."

"Hi, Dad. You remember Sora?"

"Of course. You came over last week to work on that literature project for school, didn't you? And you came on our "camping trip." Mr. Ishida smiled. "It's nice to see you as well, Sora. I just wish it was under different circumstances."

Sora nodded, lowering herself into one of the hard plastic chairs. "So do I, Sir."

"Well, I've really got to run. Doctor Kido said that he'd be up soon with more results- I'll call as soon as I can. And I'll be back around eight."

T.K opened his mouth to ask, but Mr. Ishida shook his head. "No change since you called earlier. I'll see you in a few hours."

"I love you, Dad."

"Love you too, Son."

Sora sat, looking at Matt's body, his chest that hardly moved, the machines that pulsed and beeped with every heartbeat. She wished she could do something, anything.

Matt had saved her, back during their first adventure, from that pit of.. whatever it was. It hadn't been darkness, exactly, nor had it been Evil. It had just been, a deep void. She'd felt so lost and alone and useless, but then...He's come. He'd pulled her from it. _I wonder what it's like, being in a coma. Is he trapped inside a dream, or can he hear this, but not respond? Or is it like that pit? If only we still had our crests- all that light- maybe then we could of done somethi- no. Stop it, Sora. don't dwell on being helpless. It's not your fault, or anyone's, except for Devimon, if it was him. We'll find away to fix this. We will._ She turned her thoughts back to Matt. He looked so peaceful, on the bed, an IV in his arm and machines all around him, humming.

T.K. looked up from _not_ doing his Math homework, spread out on his lap. Sora was staring in silence at Matt, who might have been sleeping. At least he wasn't hurting.

Tsunomon lay like a stuffed animal, sleeping in the crook of Matt's arm. He was snoring softly, and occasionally twitching. Jim must have been covering for the little digimon when other doctors came in, T.K. realized, or else his parents had. At least the digimon was sleeping, and not awake and panicking quietly like he had the day before.

There was a knock at the door, and Jim walked in, holing a few papers. He looked around. " Did your father go? I have the results, but-"

Ms. Takaishi walked in behind him. "Oh, Doctor Kido. Excuse me."

He moved aside. "You can call me Jim, Ms. Takaishi. I have the blood work results." He paused. "His vitamin C level is a little low, but other than that- nothing. We thought he might be anemic, but it's like what we said yesterday - there isn't anything physically wrong that we can find. We'd like to do another MRI, in the morning."

She nodded, then sank into her chair next to Sora. Jim Kido left the room with a slight bow.

T.K's mother pursed her lips.

"T.K.? I want you to be honest with me. Matt didn't just fall, did he? This has to do with _That, _doesn't it?"

Sora didn't say anything, but felt awkward.

"Yes." T.K. didn't bother to lie. He swallowed. "It does have to do with the Digital World. I wanted to tell you when Dad got here, when we were all together."

"Takeru Takaishi!" she said, holding her head in her hands.

T.K. looked down. "It's-"

"And the times you've woken up in the middle of the night, why you aren't sleeping? It's only been these last weeks. That's connected to this too, isn't it- the nightmares?"

T.K. nodded, wondering how his mother had known- he'd only just told anyone but Patamon, and they hadn't had the chance to tell his mother, even if they would have.

His mother's face paled. "That's... Last month. When we were here," she indicated the hospital room as sirens echoed in the distance. "Your head, your rib- that was the- the Digital World, too. You answer me, T.K."

Sora became very interested in the bandage on her leg.

"Yes, but- it was different, it wasn't- it was-" But T.K. didn't know what to say, or how to say it. "I know I should have told you, but-"

"Yes! You should have- you know you can tell me anything, T.K." Her voice softened.

"T.K. I don't want you going back there."

"What?!"

Patamon had gone to sleep( after a night with little rest and a long day) by Tsunomon, and twitched. T.K. looked away from his mother, to his sleeping friend.

"I don't want you going back there. T.K., listen to me. I can't loose you." Her eyes were starting to tear up, and she turned to look at her older son. "When you left, four years ago, first into the fog and then back to that _place_ to fight - I was so afraid I'd lost you. Lost both of you. I was - your father and I both were - terrified your friends would come back and you wouldn't, and they'd tell me that you'd... I saw explosions, and such darkness, I couldn't think.

"Last month, when Matt called and said there'd been an accident, that he was at the hospital, that you'd been hurt - I could have lost you, and now Matt, and I-"

"Mom, I have to." T.K interrupted his mother's monologue, not wanting to hear it. It was scary, to remember, to think about how close he, and Matt, and all their friends had come to death in the Digital World.

Sora had finished fixing her bandage and started to toy awkwardly with her necklace.

"No. You've done what they - whoever they are - called you to do. You said it was over, after that camping trip last month." she put a hand on her son's arm. "Please. I don't want to loose you. I... If those Monsters-"

Patamon woke with a sleepy "Hey!"

"I know Patamon is good, but there _are_ Monsters there, you've told me enough, I remember enough from four years ago. I don't want you to go back, T.K."

T.K. couldn't take his mother's pleading eyes, but he couldn't promise to stay home, not with Devimon, and that Prophecy, and Izzy being captured and Matt's only shot being defeating Devimon once and for all- No.

"I have to go work on my science homework." He said abruptly. " Coming, Patamon?" The orange and white digimon fluttered to T.K's shoulder.

"Bye, Sora, Bye Mom. I'll see you."

And he set off, before either of them could say a word.

* * *

><p>Yolei sat at Izzy's desk, typing furiously. <em>Almost got it!<em> She thought.

The program was one Izzy had started work on back when Gatomon had been kidnapped, and he'd continued work on it until Ken had been defeated- then it had taken a backseat to the map he was trying to finish. It was a tracking program, to find people or Digimon who needed to be found. They'd used it to try and find Agumon when Ken was testing his latest evil project, but She wasn't quite sure how- Izzy had explained it, but it had been confusing, and she tried to remember as she typed.

Something chimed, and she cheered silently- this had to be a good sign.

the door opened, and Mrs. Izumi entered. In one arm, she held the sleeping Motimon, in the other, a mug.

"I thought you might like some hot chocolate, Yolei." She said softly. "I don't want to interrupt, but, well, how...?"

"How close am I? Pretty close, I think."

"Oh, thank God." the small red haired woman said as she set the mug down on the other edge of the desk- near enough for Yolei to grab it, but far enough from the computers that it couldn't do any damage.

"Masami and I, we're just so worried. We knew the risks, but we never really thought that-" she cut herself off.

Yolei typed a bit more, and the computer chimed again.

"How is Motimon doing?" she asked softly.

Mrs. Izumi smiled weakly. "Better. Much better. He was a mess when Tai brought him, and told us. He's been asleep for a while now, but I don't want to let him go."

Yolei nodded, not quite understanding the last."We're going to find him. We're going to bring him back."

"Thank you. Thank you, Yolei. If there is anything I can do, just say so."

"Ok, Mrs. Izumi,"

Yolei turned her attention back to the screen- what had Izzy done next? there was the standard map of the digital world, the one marked by dark and light squares to indicate the Control Spires, but-_ wait a sec, why are all those sections going light? Mimi's army usually doesn't work after sundown, since there's no real rush, and none of us are in the digital world except Izzy, but he can be in two places at once!_

It was true, squares were turning from black to white in two areas- one near File, the other past the strip of desert, in the more heavily forested areas.

Yolei turned to her digimon, who'd wrapped his pink wings around his round body and gone to sleep on Izzy's pillow, and considered waking him to ask if _ he _had any ideas. Then she thought better of it- Poromon probably wouldn't know, in any case.

Yolei, at random, clicked the section where Izzy had vanished from, on File. A box popped open.

**Enter Code:**

_Crud. I don't _know_ Izzy's Digi-code._

Izzy had once explained to her that everything in the Digiworld had a Digi-code, and that if you knew the code, you could change parts of it, or trace it. But it had taken hours to even start to pick out the code for their practice- Ken, and that had come to nothing. If she was looking for Motimon, she could have done that- the Digi-codes for Digimon were stored in the digivices- but people? If only Izzy had had his digivice!

Yolei sighed, made a mental note to thank her sisters for covering for her at the shop, and took a long drink of hot chocolate. Then she got back to work.

* * *

><p>"Ms. Takaishi?" Sora asked quietly.<p>

"Oh, Sora. I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I just wanted to explain to you, what's been going on, a little. It's not over, we thought it was, but it's not. And we need T.K. You know Izzy Izumi?"

"Yes, why?"

"He's missing."

T.K.'s mother's face went ashen._ His poor mother. At least Matt's here._

_"_He's missing, and there's an evil out there. We think it might have taken him. and it looks like T.K. might be the only one who can stop him. If Devimon wins- everything's going to get really bad. He might even come after Earth. I know you just want to keep your sons from getting hurt, that you love them. My Mom's the same way. But Izzy said, before, that Matt's best hope is if we can beat Devimon. And without T.K... he was the one who beat him before. We're stronger now, and there are more of us, but I've got a feeling that he's stronger too. T.K...It's been really hard for him, remembering what happened before. He hasn't said as much to me, but he's afraid of the same thing you are. Look, I'm not trying to say...I just wanted you to know. What's going on. I should go, I'm sorry." Sora swung to her feet and out the door.

"Wait, Sora!"

But Sora didn't enter the room. Instead, her ex-husband did.

"Hello." he said softly. "T.K. said he wanted to tell us both something, but...I guess I should go."

"No, stay." She wasn't in love with him, but she did not hate her ex. She cared for him, and as she struggled with what Sora had told her, with everything that had happened in the last few days, she realized that she needed someone, not to talk to, but just to sit with, and hope with. And he should know, she decided.

"It's the digital world. Again."

* * *

><p>T.K was stuffing things into his backpack- a sweatshirt, granola bars, one of Joe's emergency kits, a water bottle, flashlight. Patamon sat on the bed. "T.K. T.K. <strong><em>T.K.<em>**"

"What?" T.K. asked at last.

"It's not that I agree with your Mom," T.K. had told Patamon everything, "But I don't think we should go right now. For one thing, it's dark. And we have no plan. And it'd just be us. And... Whatever Prophecy there is, it...Last time..."

T.K. paused, in the middle of shoving a handful of hard candies into the side pocket.

Last Time.

Memories, images, shot through his mind. he couldn't shake them, of that hand reaching for him, Patamon glowing, Digivolving, dissolving into light.

"Then what, we just wait?"

"No, we talk to the others in the morning. We can do whatever we need to tomorrow, it's Saturday. We will beat him, but not alone. I think...I think he must be stronger, this time. I can almost feel it."

"Me too." T.K. admitted. "I'm sorry, Patamon, I just..."

"It's OK. I know. You're just worried. So'm I. But we have to have hope."

"I know." He flashed a small smile. " Patamon, do you.. do you really think we can beat him? really beat him?"

"I do."

T.K.'s D-Terminal let out a small beep, and he pounced on it, opening it and reading the new email.

_Everyone,_

_I almost have it. I just need to find Izzy's Digi-code- I think he finished the program, but I need that? If anyone happens to know it- no, I know. Poromon says to get on with the message. But that's the problem. I'm thinking that the key might be his Digivice, the Code might be linked to that, so whoever has it, I'm at the Izumi's. I can't stay much longer, so whoever has Izzy's Digivice email back and either bring it to me here or get it to me in the morning. Everyone else, good night. I'll let you know the second I find anything. _

_Yolei._

T.K. couldn't remember who had taken the Digivice- had it been Mimi? Tai? Still, they'd find Izzy, by tomorrow for sure. Maybe things really _would_ be ok.

"Patamon, read this," he said, shoving the device under the Digimon's nose. T.K. pulled out his cell phone, intending to call his mother. _Dad'll be at the hospital by now. I should explain._

But he found himself instead calling Kari.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Kari! Yolei think's she's found-"

"Found Izzy?!"

"Not quite. But, Kari, she's close. And Jim, Jim said Matt's blood work is fine, that he's not sick. They want to do another test tomorrow morning. I feel.. I feel good about this. Like we have a chance."

"I should hope so!" Kari said with a laugh. "T.K. it's great that Yolei's made so much progress. And Matt too. I'm so glad." her voice was muffled for a moment, then she said, "Tai's gone, he's running down to take Yolei Izzy's Digivice. So we'll go out tomorrow, and fight." Suddenly her voice sounded heavy. "Oh. Wow. Tomorrow, we'll go fight him, and bring Izzy back, and..."

T.K. too was struck by the words. Even has he had packed, the weight of it hadn't quite sunk in. Tomorrow. there was a long pause.

"Yeah. I guess, we should meet, and... and come up with a plan. See about Mimi's little army, if.. if they'll fight with us."

"Yeah. When..and where. should we meet, I mean." Kari asked softly. there was fear in her voice, but courage too. She swallowed.

" I guess-"

"Hang on, Tai's back, just a second." Kari paused, then said in a rush, " T.K, I don't think it was working. Something about the Digivice having to be in the Digiworld, only it's so late now, and with all the danger, Yolei says we should go when it's light, all together. And- Oh, hang on, she's just sent another email. Oh, people've already responded."

"Right. Um, see you tomorrow?"

"Yes. See you tomorrow."

Kari hung up.

_Guys,_

_Slight Problem. I need the Digivice to be Digitized, and I don't think me going to the Digiworld at this time of night is a good Idea. I'll need to go to the DigiWorld tomorrow morning, preferably with everyone else just in case, and from there I can run the program. with luck, it won't take long._

_Yolei_

* * *

><p><em>Gang,<em>

_Works for me. When and Where?_

_Davis_

* * *

><p><em>Everyone,<em>

_Great Yolei! How does Eight sound? Where we left off?_

_Cody and Upamon_

* * *

><p><em>Oh, and Demiveemon says Hi. <em>

* * *

><p><em>Could I meet you a little later than that? Matt's having another test, and I'd like to be there. I'm not sure how long it will take.<em>

_T.K._

* * *

><p><em>Works for me.<em>

_Cody_

* * *

><p><em>Me too.<em>

_Davis_

* * *

><p><em>Tai and I can be there at any time. But we need to be careful. maybe we should have a plan before we launch the rescue mission?<em>

_Kari_

* * *

><p><em>Here's an Idea- we go , Yolei get's the Code and program running, then we plan, sound good? T.K, what kind of test is it?<em>

_Joe _

_PS Mimi says she'll muster her troops._

* * *

><p><em>I'm in, at any time. T.K, your mom might want to talk to you. I tried to explain things.<em>

_Sora._

* * *

><p><em>What? what's going on?<em>

_Davis_

* * *

><p><em>Davis, I think it's T.K.'s business, not yours.<em>

_Gatomon._

* * *

><p><em>Joe, a MR Test? Sora, thanks.<em>

_T.K._

_PS Kari's right. We need a plan. A real one. Last time, we rushed into things. We can't make that mistake again._

* * *

><p><em>T.K. I don't know how soon you'll have the results. It's an MRI? I Don't know how long that'll take, but I wouldn't think too long. It's kinda like an Xray, but different.<em>

_Joe._

* * *

><p><em>Guys? I'm trying to work. <em>

_Yolei._

* * *

><p><em>Yolei's right. we should let her work, and it'a late. We should get some rest, before tomorrow. <em>

_T.K._

* * *

><p><em>So how about 10? I know it's late, but Yolei, we can go earlier- 8- and get the code scanning or whatever. you said it might take a while? and meet at 11 to start planning? T.K, you can come later than that.<em>

_Kari( and Tai)_

* * *

><p><em>Sounds good. See you then.<em>

_Joe and Mimi_

* * *

><p><em>OK. Let's do this!<em>

_Davis_

* * *

><p><em>Goodnight<em>

_Cody._

* * *

><p>Yolei did not bother to respond, busy transferring the program to her own laptop and to Izzy's from his desktop.<p>

T.K. Didn't respond either, because there had come a knock at his door.

"T.K.? It's Mom. Sora... Sora spoke to me. She explained. I'm sorry I snapped at you. I hope you understand. I've just been out of my mind with worry. But I want you to know- I support you. In all of this. With whatever battle you have to fight, whatever... whatever journey you have to take. If you need to go back, I won't stop you. You know thew risks better than I do, and if you've made your choice, I won't keep you. face your destiny, and all. But.."

T.K. threw open the door and hugged his mother.

"But be _careful_, OK?"

"I will, Mom. I will. I love you."

"I love you too. So much. And I know you can do whatever you've got to 's been so hard, to watch you, but I know you can do it... whatever it is." She smiled, and wiped at her face. She'd been crying, but so had her son.

"You'd better get some rest. Matt's test isn't until nine, but you look dead on your feet."

T.K. nodded. "Goodnight, Mom."

"Goodnight, Sweetheart. Sweet Dreams."

But T.K's dreams were ordinary, if he dreamed at all.

* * *

><p><strong>OK, so how did you like it? You did like it?<strong>

**The real action starts next chapter, Promise. We get talk, but we also get action, and then more action right after. Yay! I know a lot of you have already started school or will be soon, and I'm posting this late in the day, but if you have the time, review, or else read and review later. But please do review. they mean so much to me, and I like to see what parts you like or don't like, so I can make the story more enjoyable in the future. Also, there is a TV Tropes page for A Captive Light! The link can be found on my blog, which is From Hedgis Head (via blogspot.) The link can be found in my profile.**

**Thanks again, So, So much, for reading. Since I don't start school for another 4 months, I'll have lots of time to write, and I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner than I got this one out.**

**Hedgi.**


	11. Darkness of the Past

**Hi! Remember how I said there'd be action in this chapter? Yeah, it got a bit long, so I've split it up a bit, but don't worry, there's still some action. Hope you like it! Short note today, just remember that I love your reactions to what I put these character through and thanks again for all your kind words!**

**Disclaimer: Turns out that the dream I had where I got the rights to digimon was just a dream. I think it was the unicorn that tipped me off. So no, Don't own.**

* * *

><p><em>Someday our fight will be won,<em>

_Then we'll stand in the sun, On_

_That bright afternoon_

_'Til then, on days when the sun_

_Is gone, we'll hang on_

_If we wish upon the moon_

_-Someday*_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter nine: Darkness of the Past<em>

Yolei woke early. She rubbed sleep from her eyes, let one hand rest on the feathered lump that was Poromon, asleep on her pillow, and sought out her glasses with the other. The room she shared with her sisters came into focus. Poromon woke with a soft chirp, yawned, and asked quietly, "Yolei?"

The girl put a finger to her lips as she took Izzy's laptop and opened the sliding glass door that opened onto the balcony.

"What is it, Yolei?" Poromon asked.

Yolei sank to the chilly cement, her back to the wall, holding Izzy's still closed laptop.

"I can't sleep. In a few hours, we'll all- oh, who knows what. Be fighting. But - I mean, what if Tai was wrong, to trust me with this, what if I screw up, what if I can't do this?" her voice shook. "We've got to find Izzy soon, but what if this doesn't work, then what'll we do?" She, to her embarrassment, was near tears.

"You can if yourself to death, Yolei. I have faith in you. You think this will work, right?"

"Well, yeah." Yolei nodded. "It _should_ work. I think."

"Then that's all we can hope for." Poromon squeaked. " It'll work, have a little faith."

Yolei bit her lip, then nodded again. _They _won't_ be sorry they put their faith in me. This will work, its got to, it will._ She thought, opening Izzy's computer to make certain that the program still existed.

* * *

><p>Cody was sweating under the quilted padding he always wore when he spared with his grandfather. "Ha!" he cried, bringing his kendo stick up and around one arm to land a light blow.<p>

"That is enough for this morning, I think, grandson." Cody's teacher and grandfather bowed, and Cody did likewise, then set his gear aside.

"You are distracted." Cody's grandfather sipped his tea. Cody only stared at his. "Cody?"

"Yes, Grandpa. I'm sorry."

"I did not ask for an apology. Perhaps you right to be distracted. Your friend's brother is hurt, and you worry for him."

Cody nodded. Though Joe had told him that some lies were OK, he still preferred silence to telling one. How could he tell his grandfather what was really on his mind? He did not think he truly was the "small one" even if he was short. But what if he was? Or what if this Devimon decided not to risk it, and... he didn't want to give words to the idea, but they came unbidden. What if he got hurt, too? It terrified him, and drew his thoughts no matter what he did.

"That is not all, is it? You are afraid of something."

Cody shook his head to clear his mind, then realized the question. "Yes." He could tell some of the truth, if not all of it. "A monster."

Grandpa looked surprised for a moment. "Do not fear demons, my grandson. Fear is their greatest weapon. All that we can do is fight them, with courage, with love, with all that is good in the world- with what is light and with hope in our hearts. Demons and monsters may cloud our minds, but we must fight them. Fight them with those things, and you will win."

Cody closed his eyes, drinking in the words, but he didn't mean fear and despair and sorrow- not the "demons of the mind" as Grandpa called them. He meant Monsters, real ones, the kind that had hurt Matt, had taken Izzy. Grandpa didn't understand, couldn't understand. Advice usually calmed him, but today only one thought burst from his lips.

"Grandma, what if we - what if I loose?"

"Hmm? Stand with your friends, and keep fighting."

* * *

><p>Davis rolled over in bed, trying to get at least a little more sleep. There'd be a battle today ( an epic battle, probably) and he was sure it'd take everyone, human and digimon. He punched his pillow, trying to fluff it up, and lay back forcefully, crashing his head into the wall in the process. This was pointless. He'd never get to sleep- he was simply too worried.<p>

He threw off the covers and began to pace, trying to think. There was something bugging him, about that Prophecy. It wasn't as though he didn't believe in it... well, not exactly. After all, for all they knew, Izzy had got it wrong (he didn't really believe that) or it wasn't a prophecy at all ( or that, either) or it wasn't talking about now ( that, he wanted to believe.)

"Davish?" DemiVeemon asked sleepily. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Just thinking."

"Uh-Oh, that can't be good."

"Hey! I resent that!" Davis scowled briefly, tossed a balled up sock at his digimon partner and resumed his pacing.

No that wasn't what was worried him. What worried him was the possibility that Kari was in danger. That ANY of his friends was in danger (but it was Kari's face that he kept seeing.)

And he. Just. Didn't. Know.

When they'd fought Ken, he'd known, known who he was, known what he was capable of, his typical tactics. But Devimon?

He knew nothing. _I know I'm not Yolei or Izzy, I'm not _smart_ but...but I need to think, I need to come up with a plan, and I need to know._

The older kids knew about Devimon, they'd fought them, Tai and them. But Davis was left out, and no one was telling him and Cody and Yolei what had happened four years ago.

Davis was just glad that there hadn't been a repeat of several weeks ago, when in ignorance of Kari's past he'd said something dumb and set her off. Davis wished that the older kids would just write a book of all that had happened so he wouldn't make that mistake ever again.

He replayed the scene in his mind, trying and failing to remember the exact words of the prophecy. Something- a lot of stuff really - about darkness, and the Smallest, and light - that sounded like Kari.

There. That was another thing. Why had Joe- had it been Joe ? - been so certain that it was about T.J.- T.K.? Even in his head, Davis couldn't resist miss-saying the blond's name, an old (if slightly unwelcome) joke between them.

What had whoever it was said? That he'd come after T.K. because he had before? Tai'd explained what had happened, but not all. Davis wanted to know what had happened, what had really happened, not just the glossed over, "there was a fight once."

_It's not something any of us want to relive,_ Kari had said.

"But we are reliving it." Davis said softly. What was it his history teacher liked to say- something about not understanding history and having to repeat it?

"Wha?" DemiVeenmon asked.

"Hey, DemiVeemon?" he said. Dawn had crept into view, and light was filling his room.

"Yesh?"

"Do you know why they said it was T.K? Maybe from before you got sealed away, you heard a rumor or something?"

"I'm shawry, can't shay that I have." The little blue digimon shook his head.

"It's OK. I'll ask today. I know that T.S. - T.K. doesn't want to say anything, but maybe Tai will."

He glanced at his clock. He had time for a very long shower.

* * *

><p>The sun was shining brightly as Kari and Tai landed with a thump on grass wet with dew.<p>

Davis, Cody and Yolei, along with their digimon, were just ahead.

Cody, looking very on edge, clutched his digivice with white fingers.

"Remind me why we all had to come?" Davis asked Yolei as she set down a small, light blue object, then flipped open the laptop she had been carrying like a child, cradled against her chest.

"Safety in numbers." Tai said, glancing over one shoulder.

"We're milesh from File!" cried Veemon, but Armadillomon silenced him with a look.

"Just cause this Devimon fellow's attacked there, doesn't mean he's stickin' to there."

"That's right!" Hawkmon said. "He or his creepy gears, could be anywhere."

Gatomon and Agumon looked at each other, then turned their gaze to the skies.

"OK, I'm isolating the digivice's digicode," Yolei said aloud, though more to herself than any of her friends.

Davis decided now was a good time to ask.

"Tai?I know you said a little yesterday, but what happened with Devimon four years ago?"

Cody picked up on Davis's line of thinking and chimed in. "Yes. Why T.K. ? Why doesn't Joe think it was talking Kari or me?"

Tai sighed. "It's not my story to tell. It's T.K.'s, and he doesn't want to tell it." He paused. " But some of the details, I guess, are important. Basically, Devimon was the first major villain we fought. He'd separated us-." Tai looked up sharply, as though remembering something, then shook his head. "And when we got back together, we went to fight him. He beat most of our digimon easily, even as champion levels." Agumon winced- he still had a scar, when in Greymon form, from that first battle.

"He was huge, and strong, and had most of us too far away and hurt. He went after T.K- said something about the Smallest, and Patamon digivolved. He was able to destroy Devimon, but-." Tai cut himself off. " That's all you really wanted to know, and if T.K. wants to go into detail, he can, but it's not my place to tell."

Davis nodded eagerly. "OK. I think I get it. Because T.K. beat him before, you think Devimon'll think it's him, and it probably is."

"Yes." Agumon said.

Cody looked up and around. "Wait, Devimon KNOWS about the Prophecy?"

"We guess so," Tai shrugged.

"Then why go after Matt and Izzy?" Cody wanted to know.

Tai shrugged again. His throat went tight. Matt was his best friend, and Izzy had saved his life, so many times. But he could _NOT_ wish that Devimon had hurt T.K. instead, not the kid who was practically a little brother. No. What he wished was that Devimon had stayed gone.

"Who knows?" Yolei looked up from the laptop. "Matt and T.K were next to each other, maybe Devimon's not as in control of those gears as he thought. And Izzy - well, it was Dark, wasn't it, and they're about the same height. It might have been a mistake."

"Or a trap." said Gatomon, her blue eyes narrowed. "Like Ken. In all the File stories, Devimon wasn't stupid. If he's back, maybe he Knows. He's seen Digidestined before, maybe he knows we'd try to find Izzy, even if we weren't strong enough to fight him. Remember, Armour Digivolving's only about as strong as Champion level, maybe less, and if he's stronger now..." She trailed off, and Kari knelt to bury her face in Gatomon's fur.

"Uh, guys? We can go now, the program's searching and it might lock onto the Digivice signal instead of Izzy's. Let's get back to Earth." Yolei stood up.

Cody was the first to point his digivice at the little TV Screen, and a wash of light brought the Digidestined and their Mons home.

* * *

><p>T.K. sat in the hard plastic chair in his brother's hospital room. They'd wheeled Matt out earlier, and his parents had both gone with him, but T.K. had stayed behind with Tsunomon and Patamon.<p>

"T.K?" Tsunomon said. "It'll be ok, won't it?" the orange digimon's voice was soft.

T.K nodded. "I... I think so. We're going to fight Devimon. And it won't be like before."

Patamon shoved his head under T.K's hand, a bit like Kari's cat Miko. "It won't," he confirmed. "We'll beat him. There are more of us now, and we're stronger too."

T.K. smiled. Jim had been hopeful, after the last blood test. TK'd seen him this morning, and he'd said Matt might wake up any time. T.K knew there was more, things that the doctors wouldn't understand, but still. He felt better, after his talk with his mom. Today, it would be over. They'd fight Devimon, beat Devimon, and find some way to reverse or destroy the power of the gears.

It would work.

"Are you afraid?" Tsunomon asked Patamon gently.

"I'll be with T.K." Patamon answered. "I'm afraid, but not as much as I thought I'd be."

T.K had to agree. he had spent the night tossing and turning and just thinking. They'd find Izzy and face the digimon that had haunted his dreams for so long. He thought he'd be more afraid, terrified even, like he had been as a child. But instead..."I feel good. Warm," he put a hand over his heart. "I know we can do this."

They sat in silence for a while, T.K stroking the two digimon's soft fur.

_I wonder what's happening with Matt? And with the others?_ TK saw that it was past 11, but he didn't want to join his friends until he knew how the tests had gone, if there was any change at all.

His DTerminal buzzed, and he read the email aloud to Patamon and Tsunomon.

_T.K._

_We're all at Izzy's, since his parents will cover for us. The search program is taking a while, so take your time. Any word on Matt? Let us know, we'll see you soon._

_Kari._

_No word yet._ T.K typed. _But Mom and Dad should be back soon, I think. See you soon._

At that moment, the door opened. Patamon stopped fluttering around and sat still, but it was only Mr. Ishida.

"T.K. They've finished. They have to process the information, and it may take some time." he sat down. "Your mom told me, about this Digital world stuff not being over. I guess you'll be going back there soon?"

T.K. nodded. If there was no news, maybe he should just go. Izzy had been missing for so long now, what if he was hurt? They couldn't waste more time.

"Patamon and I should go now." T.K. stood up.

His father nodded. " Be careful, kiddo."

"I will, Dad."

T.K.'s mother entered the room and saw T.K standing, Patamon on his shoulder.

"You're leaving?"

T.K. nodded again. "I have to, Mom."

"I know, sweetie, I... I know." She held him for a moment. "Go on, your friends are probably waiting."

T.K. left.

* * *

><p>"I'm not staying!" Sora was saying as T.K. entered Izzy's room. "Joe! I'm not."<p>

"Sora, your leg-"

"Will be fine. I'll bring the crutches."

"What's going on?" T.K. hissed to Kari as he sat down on the floor beside her.

"Joe thinks Sora should stay behind, because of her leg." Kari whispered back.

"Sora, if you go, you could hurt it even more!"

"Joe, it's my fight too!"

No one else said anything.

"There aren't many spires left, not near File, and that's probably where he is, so I'll just ride Birdramon, will that make you quit insisting I'm helpless?"

"I never said!" Joe sputtered, but Tai interrupted.

"Sora, we have to conserve energy. It might take some time to find Devimon, and we don't want Birdramon to be weakened by all that flying. Why don't you stay here, and-"

"Tai!"

"Let me finish! At the first sign of a battle, we'll get you. We'll have the laptop, we'll open a portal and get you."

Sora grumbled, but nodded. "O.K. But if you leave me out of this, I'll-!"

"We won't!" everyone chorused.

"Now that that's settled," Joe said, "We really should come up with some kind of strategy."

T.K. nodded. "Yeah. Just charging in like last time won't be good enough."

Davis muttered something like 'didn't you _beat_ him last time?' But Yolei elbowed him in the ribs and he shut up.

T.K. pretended not to have heard.

"OK!" Yolei cheered. "The signal's locked! It worked!" She tapped at her keyboard, her elation melting away. "Oh, for the love of- I don't believe it. It's not exactly a small area."

"What is it?'' Mimi asked, squinting at the screen.

"File. It's just saying File, the center region of File, but that's it!" Yolei looked like she wanted to hit something. Even Poromon edged away from the purple haired girl.

"Well," Mimi said, more brightly than Yolei would have liked. "It's a start. He's got to be on File, we'd guessed but couldn't have known that for sure. Here, let me send a message." She sat at Izzy's desktop and started to type, stopped for a moment, and continued. "I'm sending a message to all of my little friends, telling them to get to File when they can, as soon as they can. Most of them are pretty far off - I had them investigating some Spires Yolei said were vanishing a ways away from where they were taking down spires near File, but they'll come as quick as they can. Center of File, right?"

T.K gave a little cry. "I'm stupid!" he said suddenly. "Infinity Mountain. It's got to be Infinity Mountain, where else would he be?"

Tai and the other older kids looked at each other and shook their heads.

"I should have remembered!" Joe said with a strange laugh. "I'm the one who tried to climb that thing on my own! It's a good thing I failed, too."

"You did, didn't you?" Sora smiled, remembering. That was Joe.

"So, we go to Infinity Mountain." Davis said, standing. "Now all we need is a plan of attack."

"Hold up!" Veemon said. "I think Yolei hash shomething to shay."

"Yeah. Guys, why are there no TVs on File except for that one between Izzy's camp and that old wreck?" She looked up from her screen. "It looks like a kind of long walk, or flight or whatever."

"If we're supposed to conserve energy, does that mean we're walking?" Cody put in. Armadillomon added "Yeah, doesn't seem like we've got the time to waste."

Tai and Davis both frowned.

"And how are you going to get me out there?" asked Sora in a huff. "I mean-"

Kari began to scratch Gatomon's tufted ears.

"Well, this is exciting," she commented, watching the flurry of questions with slight amusement. "T.K., any thoughts for a plan?"

"No," he said. "I've been too worried to plan. I've tried, but..."

"We'll bring the laptop!" Yolei said. "And use it to get you, Sora, wait, did we already say that? Now, if we walk to the ruin, it's about equal walking/ flying- champions are stronger than Armour Digivolving, so those digimon that can should save their strength, so we'll fly on Halsemon and, um-"

"I'll ride up, with Raidramon. Kari, you want to ride with me?" Davis asked.

"I think Gatomon would rather fly."

"I'm strong enough to digivolve twice, I think, if someone brings catnip along." Gatomon purred.

"So'm I! Minus the catnip," squeaked Patamon.

Sora stood, leaning on one crutch. "If you open the laptop on Infinity Mountain, you won't have Birdramon to fly you guys, and I'm not sure three- four-," she amended, "digimon can carry all of you. Besides, what if we're ambushed again? Why don't you open the portal at the ruin? Birdramon can carry at least two of us, and still have the energy to fight."

Yolei nodded, marking things down.

"Ok," she said. "So there's nine of us and five digimon that can carry us, plus five extra digimon. So two to each, except for Raidramon, Davis you'll be faster on your own. And everyone keep your digimon with you. Will that work?"

"Sure, fine, now, can I tell you my plan?" Davis asked loudly.

He stood without waiting for a consent. "We'll need to do a little surveillance, maybe a Zhannemon could check, while we wait at the old house thing- and then we'll go. Devimon'll be around the top, I'd guess, because it's the best vantage point and also he's evil and evil likes forbidding mountain tops right?"

"He had some palace-y thing near the top, at least that's what Leomon said." Mimi said, her face growing sad at the mention of Leomon's name.

"Right, so we'll go up, but from different directions. In our groups, three of us from one side, we'll go first, then as soon as he's in sight and focused, the others from the other side. I was thinking the first wave should have at least one of our heavy hitters- maybe me, Yolei, and Mimi with half of whatever army's there, and then Cody and Kari, and then from the back more of the Champion digimon- the rest of Mimi's crew, and T.K, and Tai and Sora and Joe, and we'll all just blast him with all our firepower at once and, and... and... yeah. That's all I've got."

"That actually sounds like a good plan, Davis." T.K. said as he thought about it.

"Thanks, I- hey!"

Kari giggled, then schooled her face to calmness. "I think it sounds good."

Tai nodded. "It's better than anything I've got, good work, Davis." Davis swelled with pride. "Now, we'll need to strike together, and quickly, we don't want to give him a chance to attack. He was huge when we fought him last, but if we all gang up on him, we'll have a pretty good chance. Especially if we have this prophecy that says we can beat him."

T.K. had been whispering with Patamon, and at last stood up. "I told Izzy, and Patamon and I think you should know. You're my friends, and, well... I've been having dreams. Devimon's in them. Sometimes they're of that fight last time, but sometimes- I don't know. It's just him and darkness and he's Stronger, in the dreams, and I think it means he's gotten stronger for real. Even with the prophecy, and with all of us, there's still a lot of danger."

Kari let out a squeak. "What does Devimon look like? In your dreams? Horns, and holey wings? And then there's light? And," her voice quivered, "a voice? Talking, but you can't quite hear it?"

"Yeah," T.K. blinked.

"I thought it was - something else. Another monster. But - it's only been once, maybe twice, just in the last few days. I've been having nightmares, too. I didn't want to say, I thought it was just... "

She didn't look at Tai, just at her hands, still scratching Gatomon's ears.

"I thought it was the Master of the Dark Ocean." She said quietly. "But I think...I think it's Devimon. T.K and Patamon are right. He's strong. Stronger than what we've faced on our own." She fell silent, and Yolei spoke up.

"No more talk. Let's go. Talking anymore isn't going to do us any good. Mimi, you sent the message?"

"Yes, Ma'am " Mimi said with a salute.

Yolei continued, checking things off her piece of paper.

"Joe, you have supplies?"

"Water, food, first aid kits, Gatomon's catnip, matches..." He stopped at Yolei's Look. " Yeah, I've got them."

"Good." Tai said. "Let's divide them up, in case we get separated."

As they did, Yolei continued.

"I've got the laptop, Sora, and we'll open a portal as soon as we get to the ruin, so just wait here."

"OK."

"Anything else?" Yolei looked up.

Cody stood up, then bent to retrieve his wooden Kendo stick from the floor. "I'm ready." He said, as Upamon bounced around his feet. "_Stand with your friends, and keep fighting_." His grandfather's advice rang in his ears.

"So'm I," said Kari, rising.

"Digiport open!" Davis yelled, pointing his digivice at the desktop computer.

* * *

><p>The forest was very still, and deceptively pretty. Sunlight filtered through the tree branches and leaves, covering the ground with disks of green-gold light. Though tension was high, so was energy. The group walked, not too quickly, to save energy, but briskly, through the wood.<p>

No one spoke.

After only a short time, Gatomon stopped, her ears twitching. Patamon stopped as well.

"What's that?" they asked together, looking up and around.

Out of the sun dappled wood can a low whirring- and then gears.

"Digivices, everybody, NOW!" Davis shouted, lifting his own to shoulder height and willing it to glow.

"Boom Bubble!" Patamon cried, sending out a burst of air to knock a gear off course, and into the beam of light spilling from Cody's Digivice. Other digimon began attacking the gears, either to destroy them or move them into the line of fire.

Overhead, gears swarmed, darting down into the tiny clearing where a burst of Pepperbreath was waiting to destroy it, or a tangle of Palmon's Poison Ivy dragged it to the nearest blast of light.

"There are too many!" Cody yelled, holding his digivice in one hand and his Kendo stick in the other, trying to swat a gear away from Yolei and hit it with light at the same time.

The sky was dark with gears, when suddenly-

From the woods came digimon. Not as many as made up the whole of Mimi's army, but many, at least ten, fifteen, maybe twenty, all small. They fought, with their attacks of bright pink bubbles or a glowing body, and sometimes a gear would start to enter them, only to be destroyed by a friend or one of the Digidestined.

A tiny Snobotamon's eyes turned red as a gear sank into her body, Mimi gave a yell and tried to wrest it from the tiny creature with her bare hands, only to remember the danger and blast the little digimon with the golden light of her digivice. It worked, the gear dissolved and the specks floated away. The Snobotamon cheeped a thanks and hopped back into the fray, headbutting a gear directly into T.K's line of fire.

Three gears spun around T.K, each vaporized by one of his friends, two more tried to target Kari but could not penetrate her skin- with all the light from the digivices, and the sun beaming down through a gap, she almost looked to be glowing. She fired light and wished, once again, that she had her Crest.

There, another gear, "Gomamon, look out!" Joe shouted to his seal digimon, who's attack was about as useless as anything, since there were no bodies of water within range. Gommamon threw himself out of the way as a gear zoomed by, then turned as a jet of golden light hit it squarely, then shouted a warning to Yolei, besieged by gears. Tai came to her aid, thrusting forth his digivice blindly, not bothering to aim, just desperate to destroy the Dark gears.

At last, after a long and terrible moment, the gears were gone, turned to digital dust. The digidestined panted for breath, drinking some of the water they had brought.

Mimi's army seemed no worse for wear, though they bounced a little less high, and the tension was even higher in the group.

At last, Cody broke the silence.

"We should keep going. We're nearly there."

With a nod, Yolei got to her feet- she'd tripped over Hawkmon as she had rushed forward to defend the rear of their company- and they started forward, a bit more slowly and more cautiously. But no more gears disrupted the journey.

* * *

><p>The ruins where just as they'd left them, old, crumbling, stained with smoke and filled with debris. Davis pointed above, to the wall-less upper story. "I'm going up there, to signal the Zhannemon. Anyone coming?"<p>

T.K nodded. "It might be good to see what we can from here, on top of what the Zhannemon scouts can tell us."

"Digi-Armour Energize!" he shouted, holding out his digivice. this time, instead of gears, the light hit Patamon.

**Patamon Armour Digivolve to... Pegasusmon!**

T.K. mounted his yellow pegasus digimon, then flew upwards as Davis, Joe and Mimi rushed up the stairs to signal the Zhannemon( safety in numbers, of course.) Yolei stopped to open the laptop and portal, but T.K. flew still higher, not watching. For the first time in days, he felt free; he loved flying with Patamon- well, Pegasusmon. At last he looked around him. There was Infinity Mountain, its peak surrounded by remnants of fog, and there was the sea, farther out. T.K. looked down at the ruins, seeing glinting shapes - the Zhannemon - hurtling along lower in the air.

For a moment, his heart stopped, his breath caught in his throat.

"I remember this place," he said at last. A feeling of dread overtook him, he could see Kari, Cody, and Tai outside, waiting with Sora and their Digimon- and Mimi's now larger army. Mimi and Joe were on the crumbly, exposed second story, with Davis half way up a pillar like a climbing pole, and a Zhannemon speaking to them.

He remembered now, this ruin.

"Pegasusmon, down, now." He hissed, his voice still tight. Pegasusmon dove. Wind rushed past T.K., as it had four years ago, only then he'd been on a bed, not diving but falling, falling alone over the dark waves and bits of Files Island.

Pegasusmon landed with a clatter of hooves on stones, then di-digivolved.

"Tai," T.K. wheezed, trying to catch his breath. "I remember this place, I've been here, we've been here, it's the mansion that turned out to be a trick, where,"he stopped, breathing heavily.

"Where Devimon caught us!" Tai's face went pale. What if this too was a trap? He had been an idiot, not to recognize it - shouldn't you remember the place where you almost died? Then again, that was practically the whole Digiworld by now, but still!

Sora looked around. "Great, just great. We should get out of here, he might know we're coming, our best hope is to attack now, before he can get really big again, or send more gears or something- Biyomon, get ready to digivolve!" She swayed on her single crutch.

Tai opened his mouth to shout for Davis and the others to hurry up, to get down there so they could leave, when something very odd happened.

He'd seen it once- no, twice before. Once in a woods like this one, once deep in an underground sewer system.

Kari was _glowing_.

Pale pink light outlined her form, covering her skin. Her eyes snapped open, as everyone stared in shock. When she spoke, the voice was heres, but also not hers, more commanding, more unyielding, stronger. She spoke quickly.

"You must flee, Digidestined, flee fast and flee now. Darkness is coming, the Dark One sends his Gears and his Darkness, Stronger than the night, _Go!_"

The light, pink and shining brightly, did not fade as Kari tore into the woods, her friends not half a second behind her, calling for the others to _run_.

* * *

><p><strong>OH My Gosh. Was that exciting? My fingers hurt. I typedwrote this over the course of a day and a night, and it's over FIVE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED words, which is a thousand more than last time and OH man sleep. Heh. Um, yeah. I hope I didn't disappoint. I actually went back and added more action to this half of the chapter I decided to split ( and Oh, look, a cliffhanger, isn't that convenient?) Also action. I think I kind of stink at action-y battle-y stuff. Prove me wrong or prove me right, I did my best and really hope you liked it, so you should tell me if it was ok or if I need to work harder on the next chapter because this one wasn't good enough :D Um, yeah. Anyway, I promise I'm almost done with my ramble. Expect the next chapter before Halloween (I'm going to be Helga Hufflepuff!)and I really hope you'll leave a review to tell me if I lived up to expectations/ if you liked the chapter. You did like it, right?**

**Have a great month everyone!**

**~Hedgi**


	12. Leader's Duty

**Authors Note: This is really only its own chapter because the last one was getting way to long, and the next one will probably be long as well. Also, I got to use CLIFFHANGERS! I love those, as you can tell.**

**Oh and that whole" gave up the power to digivolve to Ultimate/ Mega" thing- yeah, that never happened. I'm already screwing with canon with what's happened( and what's coming, be afraid) So I'm telling you now- the only thing limiting the Digidestined is energy- tired digimon can't do much. Also, crest digivolutions work better with more people- remember how they discovered that it was more than just their courage/ hope/friendship that powered them, but everyone's? Yeah, I'm going with that. Also it takes time because I said so, digivolutions are not instantaneous. This may or may not come into play now or later. you shall have to wait and find out. Yay!**

**Disclaimer: I own Digimon about as much as I own the moon. Or a pony. Not that I particularly want the moon or a pony. Well, a little. :)**

* * *

><p><em>Angel of darkness <em>

_Angel of darkness _

_Don't follow your command _

_But I will fight and I will stand._

_~Angel of Darkness._

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 10: Leader's Duty<em>

Though the forest was dark, for all it was late afternoon, the digidestined did not stumble over tree roots, fallen branches, or loose stones. In the gloom, pink light shone from Kari, running ahead of the pack as though her life depended on it. She was as graceful as a deermon as she flew over the broken ground, head back, chest forward, leaping over debris, but her pink-tinged face was etched with fear. She ran blindly, and behind her thundered Tai and Agumon.

"Kari!" Tai called, his chest heaving, heart pounding. He tried to look behind him in the shadows for T.K., for Sora, for anyone, but Kari's light half blinded him and the terror of her warning- or the warning of the Digital Spirit that had taken hold of her- spurred him on.

Just as suddenly, Kari came to a halt, her light fading away. Golden light spilled through leafy branches into a small natural clearing. She fell forward, reaching out to a tree but catching her brother.

"Kari!" Tai lifted her to her feet, his heart still pounding in his ears. Where were the others, what was coming, how had Kari- or the Light- known?

"Tai? What...?" She doubled over, breathing hard.

Gatomon, who'd bounded farther than her human partner, returned, putting a paw on Kari's knee. "Kari, you were glowing. You told us to run."

"I...I did?" Kari looked around fearfully.

More footsteps, running hard, and T.K. arrived, with Patamon fluttering by his ear. Hot on his heels was Cody, his kendo stick clenched in one fist, Armadillomon just behind him.

"Where ... where are ... the others?" T.K. panted, looking around at his friends and their digimon. It was only the eight of them in the clearing.

Correction: it _had_ been only the eight of them in the clearing. From the darkness, red eyes glinting, came digimon.

Three were huge Monochromon, with sharp black horns that seemed to grow out of solid shadow. A Unimon was there, and two Centarumon. A dozen Gazimon joined them, and the small army was not done growing. The digimon came from all sides, surrounding the Digidestined in a matter of seconds. Light shone from overhead, but it was no rescue- sunlight bounced off of metal wings and red eyed Zhannemon circled lower and lower.

Before they could even get their digivices up, the Digidestined were under attack.

A Monochromon swung his heavy tail at Kari, Cody threw up his Kendo stick and caught the blow; the stick cracked in two but Kari was able to get out of the way as the tail, brutally spiked, hit the ground. Silver feathers, razor sharp, showered from above- several got caught in Tai's thick hair as he ducked to cover his face- one struck Patamon hard, three embedded in the ground around him. There was a clatter as two struck the armored back of Armadillomon and bounced off. Meanwhile the other digimon advanced- with a cry of "Lightening Paw!" Gatomon dove to defend Kari, slashing two of the Gazimon with her green gloved claws - Agumon attacked one of the Centarumon- there was a popping sound and Tai felt warmth on his face- a tree that was the perch of the Zhannemon was set ablaze. Smoke poured from the tree, the Zhannemon shrieked and took again to the skies; the battle raged on.

"Digivices!" Tai shouted, coughing as he inhaled smoke. "Everyone, Digivices, we can't," he dropped to his knees to avoid a blow from the Unimon. Agumon raced forward, spitting more fire with shouts of "Pepper Breath!"

Light shone from the digivices, not strong enough, the Digimon infected with Gears fought on. One of Gatomon's claws caught the edge of a gear in a Gazimon's back, it vanished and the digimon looked decidedly confused before turning tail and fleeing to the woods. Feeling proud, Gatomon did a flip, bounced off another Gazimon's head and landed perfectly on the Unimon's back where she began to claw at the fringes of a Gear stuck into his back.

Chaos reigned.

Cody held up his digivice in one hand, sweating as he forced it to glow, half his Kendo stick in the other. The light drove off Gears in circling Zhannemon, the stick fended off the large metal feathers that zoomed at his face. Armadillomon stood beside him, rolling at any digimon that came too near Cody, nearly bowling over Patamon in his confusion.

"We have to Digivolve!" Patamon squeaked, blasting a Gotsumon with his puny bursts of pressurized air. "Boom Bubble, pah!"

"We can't!" T.K cried back. "If we stop," his free hand, bleeding from a feather cut, indicated the light that shot from his digivice into the Centarumon that was advancing on Tai, " They'll overtake us!"

As one, the Digimon attackers turned gleaming eyes on the clump of children. "Small One, there is no need for more harm to come to your friends." They spoke in eerie unison, voices rough as though the words were torn from their lips. "Come to us, surrender to the Dark One and this shall end. Give up the Small One, Digidestined."

"Like hell!" Tai roared, swinging his free hand, now a fist, into the Centarumon's jaw as Gatomon yowled her triumph, having broken down the gear inside the now wild Unimon. It reared, throwing the cat digimon, Kari caught her, dropping her digivice, its glow vanished. The Monochromon charged; Cody dove out of the way, catching his ankle on a root and hitting the ground as Grandfather had taught- on the flats of his arms; he rolled.

Chaos reigned.

"Kari, look out!" T.K. screamed as a second Centarumon charged her, hooves raised- Kari screamed- T.K. turned the light of his digivice on it as Kari's fingers found her own pink and silver device, light shot clean through the Centaur Digimon, the gear burst free of his hide and dissolved, the Centarumon turned to the deeper woods and ran, baying, screaming in pain from his burns and feather cuts- he was gone, but his companion turned murderous hooves on Tai, knocking him to the ground; Agumon raced forward to defended him, Armadillomon threw himself at the digimon, knocking him off balance; Tai got to his feet.

Chaos reigned.

Light poured from the Digivices, lighting the clearing brighter than the sunlight reflected from the Zhannemon's wings; one of the Zhannemon swooped, talons bared, but Cody's digivice light caught her square in the chest, combined with Kari's. The Gear shattered. This Zhannemon, unlike one of her beaten/freed friends did not fly away, towards the rest of Server, but dove at the Gear embedded in a Monochromon's neck, her talons gripped it and she pulled away, the Gear crumbling as she did so. This Monochromon, too, stayed to help, battling his red-eyed counterpart.

Light surged from Tai's digivice, brighter than the newer ones. The Centarumon kicked Agumon hard, but the light surrounded the yellow dinosaur digimon- as Agumon got to his feet, looking stronger than before, there was a shriek and the Gear in the Centarumon vanished. Tai breathed deeply and coughed, the tree was still on fire and what was more it had spread. Three trees to his left were alight; eyes wide, he ran as a flaming branch fell.

Chaos reigned.

Kari had picked up the other half of Cody's stick and was swinging it at three Gazimon that had managed to pin Gatomon- she didn't want to hurt them, but when it came down to it, she cared about Gatomon more. The light from her digivice guttered, then grew bright again, as she knocked two of the Gazimon aside, a Gear in one vanished and the very freaked out digimon screeched to the others to stop- they didn't listen, Gatomon bit, hard, there was a crack as the kendo stick collided with digimon, Gatomon was free. "Behind you!" she mewed, doing another flip and handing solidly on a low flying Zhannemon that had swept down upon Kari, intent on her prey. Kari screamed and held up her digivice, ducking as feathers flew - one caught her on the cheek, the light intensified as T.K. rushed to her aid. While Gatomon and Patamon bit and clawed at the Zhannemon's gear and clung tightly to her matted hair as the enraged harpy spun and struggled, the two stood beside each other, shoulder to shoulder, light gleaming from their digivices.

Chaos reigned.

At last it was down to only the largest of the Monochromon, the Zhannemon that Gatomon and Patamon fought and three Gazimon- one of the Gazimon jumped over Armadillomon, hitting Cody's back with a _ thud_ and unsheathing sharp claws. Cody cried out and Armadillomon curled into a ball and crashed into the grey digimon with a snarl. They tumbled, into the forest in the area where it burned, Agumon screeched a warning and dove forward, another branch fell.

"Agumon!" Tai shouted over the din of battle as the Monochromon advanced on him - Tai had lowered his digivice.

Someone tacked him- two of the Gear-free Gazimon, shoving him clear of the charging Monochromon, he pulled up his digivice, light pierced the cloud of smoke and hit the digimon, a Gear half embedded in its neck vanished. Armadillomon rolled back into the clearing, smacking into Gatomon who'd been thrown from the Zhannemon's back, "Hey!" she hissed.

"Sorry! I didn't see you there!"

"Never mind, look out!" The two digimon spit apart, throwing themselves back into the fight.

The Zhannemon dove, Agumon struck her with a Pepperbreath, combined light from Kari, T.K. and Tai's digivices hit her, she glowed slightly, the Gear came free and burst into tiny pieces of shadow. Cody took on the last Gazimon, sending it flying with a blow and aiming his digivice at it's back where the edge of Gear could be scene- as it struck thunder rolled.

The sun was nearly set and clouds had started to form, bleak and ominous, but the fight was over.

They had won.

T.K. looked around, breathing hard. Using the Digivices like that took energy he wasn't sure he'd had after the race through the woods.

"Where...where is everyone?" he gasped, looking around.

Tai's brown eyes widened. "They were probably cornered, too. Come on, we've got to find them."

Cody pulled out his DTerminal. "I'll ask them to meet us if they can, back at the ruin."

"Good thinking!" Agumon said, starting forward the way they had come.

Kari was trembling. " What about the fire?" she asked, but she didn't need to. Rain came down, falling in sheets.

The flames guttered and hissed, but shrank.

"We'd better go." T.K said, looking up.

They walked through the rain soaked trees, using one of Joe's flashlights in the darkest places. the sun was gone, wether set or merely covered by clouds they could not tell. Thunder rolled and boomed across the sky, and Gatomon fluffed up her fur.

"I don't like this." she said, a growl in her voice.

"I'm sorry, you could ride in my backpack." Kari offered.

"Not the rain, well, yes, the rain, but this. What did that Glowy Thing _want?_ And I don't like that we lost the others."

She raised her voice "Hawkmon! Veemon!"

The others joined in as they neared the ruin- calls for Sora, Joe, Mimi, Palmon, Gomamon, Davis, Biyomon, Yolei, and Hawkmon rang out- growing more and more frantic.

The ruin was even more of a wreck. Another pillar had fallen, part of a wing was crumbling worse than before as lightening lit the sky.

The children and digimon were drenched, not just with rain, but with sweat- their voices were hoarse with shouts when Cody found something, glinting, near a trailhead.

He held it up, his dark green eyes tense and worried.

Lightning flashed, and they saw the glint of metal.

It was a bent and battered crutch. Sora's crutch.

"Sora!" Tai raced past Cody into the woods. "Mimi! Anyone?"

The others hurried to find him kneeling in mud, holding something small in his hands. It was a DTerminal, marked with a bright red Y in nail polish- Yolei's.

Kari helped her brother to his feet.

"Do you think they're...they're...?" Cody began, shivering not just from the cold of the rain, but from exhaustion and fear.

"Dead?" Tai asked bluntly, not looking up from the DTerminal and sharp silver feather he'd found next to it. "No. We'd...We'd have found...No, I think he _took_ them."

Patamon nodded, landing heavily on T.K.'s very wet hat. "Maybe that's what those digimon meant, about us surrendering."

Kari's face was grim. Why did this situation keep recurring? She asked silently. Why was history repeating itself, Again and Again? It wasn't fair. She wanted to cry.

Tai looked from face to face. He took a deep, ragged breath, and said, "Listen, I want you to go home."

The reaction was instantaneous. "NO!" Thundered Kari, T.K., Cody and their digimon.

"We have to go after them, we have to save them! And what about Izzy, he's been gone for almost _two days!"_ The wetness on Kari's cheeks was not just rain, but tears.

Cody nodded his solemn agreement, meeting Tai's gaze with hard eyes.

"Tai, I know you're a good leader, and brave, but don't you think-" Armadillomon began, nervously fiddling with a silver feather. It cut his paws and he dropped it.

"Tai, this might be the _stupidest_ thing you've ever asked us to do," Agumon said bluntly.

"I don't know," added Gatomon, trying and failing to smooth her fluffy fur. "That pet show disaster-"

"No, listen," Tai paused. "Davis's plan's not going to work, not without numbers. We don't have that, even if we could get a hold of Mimi's Army. A handful of champions- even if we all had the energy to go beyond that - aren't going to beat Devimon, you know it, I know it. We only barely won last time, and well- we don't have as many. Devimon won't be tired from fighting six champions. The only one- the only one who stands a chance is a Mega, if what you said about him being stronger is true, T.K., Kari. Agumon and I have enough energy, I think-" Agumon nodded reluctantly. "At least to go Ultimate, but you guys are worn out, and I am not letting you risk your necks. You're part of my team, you're my family. I want you to go home, where you'll be safe. Remember he wants to _kill _one of you. I...I know I wasn't much help, when you were fighting Ken, but this-. Kari's right. Someone has to go rescue our friends."

"Not some_one_." T.K. said firmly. "All of us. We're a team. We do this together. Remember the prophecy-"

"It doesn't say anything about the Small one _winning._ I'm not going to let you risk your lives-"

"They're ours to risk!" To everyone's shock the outburst came not from T.K. or Kari, but Cody. He continued hotly, " I...I know I'm young, but you were younger than me," he indicated T.K. and Kari, " when you first came to the Digital World. My Grandfather told me to... to stand with my friends. To fight Darkness, _with my friends_. I'm not going to just run away and hope for the best." He clenched his fists. "Armadillomon, can you still fight?" he asked, looking down to his digimon.

"Sure, I feel like I could move mountains."

Gatomon purred her agreement, flexing her claws in the muck, and Patamon nodded, though he remained seated on T.K.'s hat. "For our friends? Of course." he chirped.

Tai put the DTerminal in his pocket, shaking his head.

"I - no. No. Go home. I'm not going to loose you."

"And I'm not going to loose you!" Kari snapped, her voice high with hysteria. " Or any of our friends. It's what he wants, for us to be split up. Alone we're weak. We have to fight him together. That's what the Digidestined's all about, isn't it?" Her hand reached to her neck, but there was only her camera, no golden chain and pink enameled crest to touch. "The crests, it's not just your courage that will help Agumon Digivolve. You need us there."

"Kari's right." Patamon squeaked, sliding forward on T.K.'s head. " We stand together, or we fall."

"Exactly." Armadillomon looked up at Cody.

The argument halted when T.K's DTerminal buzzed- his alone. He pulled it out, breathing in sharply. "It's...It's from Tsunomon. I don't know how but it is." He read the message, his face paling as he did. He read it a second time, a third.

"It's Matt," he said, sitting down heavily in the mud. He could not breathe, and dark spots played in his vision. He reached out a hand to Patamon, holding the wet little creature tightly. T.K. looked up at his friends, his face streaked with rain. There was no color in his face and his hands shook as he clung to Patamon.

"He's dying."

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><p><strong>Oh, yes, I did. I went there. What an ending. That's just mean, but I did it anyway. You'll be happy to know that the next chapter should be up sooner rather than later. Please remember, if you Review YOU WILL GET PREVIEWS. if you check the blog I WILL POST PREVIEWS( not as long previews as you get for reviewing, though) Seriously. From here on out there will be cliffhangers. The Darkness is coming, the Danger is coming and it's not going to let up.<strong>

**You have been warned. Now, I assume you'll all want to yell at me. I would ask that in the middle of your " HOW COULD YOU DO THIS" and "AHH, WHY WHY WHY" and " IF HE DIES I WILL FIND YOU AND EAT YOUR SOUL" you will please let me know how I did with the battle. That was the longest battle/ action sequence I have ever written IN. MY. LIFE. It took me hours and I want to know how it is- did you like it? Was it too confusing? Should I stick with this style or use the pokemon battle style- "good guy Named attack" "bad guy Named attack" "good guy named attack" and so on? There will be at least one more battle scene( because we have to see Devimon) and I want your opinions. I VALUE your opinions. I have actually changed major parts of the story because an awesome reviewer made a comment about how things were going, and I agreed. For reals. So if you have something to say, say it. If you have threats for me, go for it. If you have reactions/ thoughts you want to share, share. If you want previews, view and review. I love hearing from you, it really makes staying up until 2 am writing worth it.**

**(if you read this whole thing, leave a review and as part of it say "holy duck with a typewriter" and I'll give you bonus previews sometime next week)**

**Hedgi **


	13. A Fading Hope

**Author's note: Hi! *ducks barrage of rotten fruit, stones, and/or random desktop items.* I suppose I deserve that. But can you blame me? Yes? Well, yes, I suppose you can. Look, though, next chapter already! Woohoo! Thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

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><p><em>I pray we'll find your light <em>

_And hold it in our hearts _

_When stars go out each night _

_Let this be our prayer_

_When shadows fill our day..._

_~ The Prayer_

_And in the morning light I'll remember_

_As the sun will rise_

_We are all the glowing embers_

_Of a distant fire_

_We're gonna trip the light_

_We're gonna break the night..._

_~Trip the Light_

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><p><em>Chapter 11: A Fading Hope<em>

The sky flashed bright purple overhead as the storm continued. Soaked to the bone, the four digidestined and their digimon sat or stood in stunned silence. Thunder rolled and boomed, wind swept through the little clearing.

"No, no, he...he can't be." Tai was the first to speak, his words soft, his face white.

T.K. was trembling, tears forming in his eyes. He felt as though he was being ripped in two. How could Matt be... Matt, his protector, his big brother, his best friend - how could this be happening? But Tsunomon's email was there, the screen of the DTerminal blurred by rain.

_Sent: 6:06_

_From: Tsunomon._

_T.K., They're loosing him. He's fading. Hurry._

His mind was reeling. _What do I do? I have to go back, I have to see him, have to be with him, with Mom and Dad - but Izzy and Sora and Davis and everyone! I can't choose between my friends and my family!_

Kari seemed to read his mind. He hadn't noticed her kneeling with him in the mud until she put her arms around him. Despite the rain and her wet clothes, she was warm.

"Oh, T.K." she whispered, for his ears only, "I'm so sorry." She spoke louder. "You should be with them. Don't worry about us, we'll rescue them, we'll be ok, you'll see."

Tai, standing next to Cody, shook his head slowly. "Kari, you and Cody should go back, too. Someone needs to tell Jim, and Sora's mother, and-"

"Tai, no. No, no, no." Gatomon was still trying to smooth her white fur. Her ears were drooping with the awful wet. "We just talked about that. Not happening."

"Wait, hang on-" Agumon started.

Cody interrupted, "Um, maybe we should all go back. I'm pretty tired, and hungry, and so's," he sneezed. "So's Armadillomon."

The others turned to stare, and the nine year old held up his hands. "I didn't mean all night. Just long enough to eat, get dry, then come back and... and save everyone. I had an idea, about that."

Tai nodded, his hair oddly flat. "Go on."

"Well, If T.K.'s going to stay in the real world, we should maybe try to rescue them without engaging the enemy. No head on attacks."

"Sounds good ta me," said Armadillomon, titling his head. The others nodded, Patamon so vigorously that he slipped forward on T.K's drenched hat.

"O.K. let's start walking, come on." Tai said. Kari gave T.K's shoulders a squeeze, stood, and helped him to his feet. "We'll all go back. We'll get together some food while you, T.K., go to the hospital and we'll tell Sora's mom what's happened. Then, in an hour at most, I want the three of us to head back here."

"If...If there's no change," T.K. said softly. "I'll go with you."

Kari sent him a quavering smile.

They reached the ruin, hoping that Izzy's laptop would be there, and undamaged. It was unlikely, but it was their best chance at getting home quickly- privately Tai didn't think that any of them had the strength to do more than walk.

They found the laptop in a shallow cave made from a half fallen wall against a pillar. The screen flicked to life, bright against the gloom of rain. "Our place," Tai said to his sister as Kari nodded and raised her digivice. "Our mom and dad are at Grandma's," he explained. "And I bet that the Izumis will drive you to the hospital, T.K. If not, I'll give you cab fare."

T.K. nodded, feeling numb.

Light flashed above and below, lightning struck top of the ruin as the portal opened. T.K was the first to enter it, holding Patamon, but even as he felt real warmth returning, his clothes changing and drying, he saw, still in the digital world, a single speck of black against the darkness, growing larger. He tried to call out, but before he could he felt the familiar sensation of the Digiport sending him back to Earth- he look around and found himself in Tai's bedroom. His skin and hair were sill wet, like Patamon's muddy fur, but his clothes were deliciously dry and warm.

He moved out of the way as Kari appeared, Gatomon landing neatly on the desk chair. "T.K., Gears!" she managed to squeak before Cody(and Armadillomon) landed practically on top of her. As they struggled to untangle themselves, T.K. demanded, "What? Gears? What happened?!" His voice was high with panic.

Kari continued, getting to her feet, "Gears, there were Gears, Tai told us to go first but-"

"The portal!" Cody cried, pointing at the computer screen. The portal had closed.

"No! No! _No!_" Kari exclaimed, not caring if the neighbors heard. She reached out and shook the computer, willing the portal to open; she pulled out her digivice and aimed it at the screen but nothing happened.

Her DTerminal buzzed, and she read the email silently.

_Sent: 6:15_

_From Yolei_

_Am OK._

_ Tai_

Tai had Yolei's DTerminal, Kari remembered._ Thank Goodness, _she thought as she typed a response- _What happened?! Kari._

T.K. looked over her shoulder. "Kari," he said, not wanting to leave her, not if Tai was in trouble, but - _Matt._

_"_It's ok, he's ok, go," she said, pointing. "The Izumis are right downstairs, you should hurry."

He nodded, then ran, Patamon fluttering after him, shaking water from his wet fur as he did so.

Tai had responded, and Kari read out the email to Gatomon, Cody, and Armadillomon.

_Guys,_

_There were some Gears. I'm fine. Agumon got most of them, but they hit Izzy's computer. It's wrecked. He's going to be so mad. Still raining. Walking to nearest TV, will email once I get there, be ready to open portal. Tell Sora's folks she's missing. Kari, think you could have some towels and hot grub for Agumon and me? _

_Thanks, and Don't! Worry!_

_Tai._

_Will do._ She wrote back, sighing with relief. She was just so tired. Dark spots swam in her vision, and she leaned against the desk chair. Cody's stomach growled.

"Hang on, Cody. I'll make us some soup after we call Sora's family." Kari said, feeling her own belly grumble.

Cody nodded and handed her the cordless phone sitting on the desk. She put it on speaker, swallowed the lump in her throat, and dialed.

"Hello? Sora?" came the familiar voice of Sora's mother.

"No, this is Kari. It's..."

"It's about Sora," Cody said in his soft, slightly hoarse voice. "She's missing."

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><p>Mrs. Izumi had been more than willing to drive T.K. to the hospital. She asked, in her quiet, kind voice, if Matt was any better, but the look in the young boy's eyes had told her the answer- no. She had not asked after Izzy, sensing the fear and tension that surrounded T.K., and instead resolved to call the Kamiyas and ask Tai or Kari. Fear twisted within her, but she had to hope that the whole of it would turn out. Her son was strong, his friends were strong. It would be alright, if only because it <em>had<em> to be. The rest of the drive was spent in silence, T.K. straining to see the now familiar hospital building.

He thanked his friend's mom and got out of the car, Patamon tucked in his arms, pretending to be a stuffed toy. As he entered, he thought he heard a voice - familiar, tainted with malice, tainted with Darkness. "_It's your fault," _the voice hissed, pulling at his thoughts , but when T.K looked around wildly, he could see only doctors and nurses, no one close enough to whisper to him. "_All of this is your fault, you're the Small One, if you'd fought better, if you'd been better... attacked because of you."_ T.K. shook his head, trying to drive off the voice- it wasn't his own thoughts... was it? He shivered.

He approached the front desk, but a tall doctor with long, shiny red hair shook her head. "I'm sorry, visiting hours are over," she said, pointing to the sign- _Regular_ _Visiting Hours, 8:30 AM - 6:30 PM._

_"_No, I have to see my brother, he's-." T.K did not want to say 'dying.' "He's Matt Ishida, please, the-"

The doctor's faced softened. "Oh. Oh. I'm sorry."

"No, he's not...he's not dead?" T.K. shook his head, he could feel tears burning in his eyes. Matt wasn't dead, he couldn't be dead!

"Oh! No, no, but - Oh, come with me." The doctor stood up and motioned for T.K. to follow her. It was all he could do to not run, up the stairs and through the white, sterile halls.

Matt's door was open. T.K. burst in and fell into his mother's arms. The doctor checked one of the machines, sighed softly, then left, saying something about getting the head doctor.

"Oh, T.K." His mother had been crying, as had his father, who stood up from his chair to hug his younger son. The three of them held each other, a family united in the face of loss. Then Mr. Ishida spoke. "Gabu- Tsunomon said that you...you might be able-" he pointed to the bedside table, suddenly unable to speak. Next to a large glass vase of wisteria, heather, and hyacinth was Matt's digivice.

T.K. understood. He pulled out his own digivice and gripped it tightly in his shaking, numb fingers. the sound of Matt's heart monitor, slow, faint, and irregular, echoed in his ears. The 11 year old felt stuffed full of rocks- everything ached and he was so tired!

"I'll try," he said, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.

"If it doesn't - if it doesn't work," his mother said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "we understand. The doctors say there's a chance, if they put him in a deeper coma, but there are...They said..." She was distraught, and trying to stay strong, for her second son and for her ex husband, but she was cracking at the seams. Tsunomon interrupted from his place on the bed, nestled into the space between Matt's chest, slowly, shallowly heaving, and his outstretched arm. "Try, T.K. Please."

T.K. steadied his hand and held up the green and silver device. He felt made of jelly, but he concentrated and pushed. Light poured out of his digivice in pulses, mimicking T.K.'s own pounding heart. _More energy, _T.K. thought, his cuts stinging as he sweat from the exertion. His heart was louder, faster, beeping - no, that was the monitor.

The light faded away, and so did the sound of the machines. Again, T.K. lifted the digivice and _pushed._

His knees buckled and he sank into a chair, but still light, golden-white, pulsed through the air and onto - into - Matt. _It's going to work, it's got to work, Matt's going to be O.K, he's going to wake up, _his mind raced through thoughts like wildfire as he poured every ounce of his strength into the digivice and into the light. _Please, God, please, this has to work, this has to work, work, work, WORK!_

Just as darkness threatened his vision, black spots gathering in on the beam of light in his vision, he gasped and dropped the digivice. T.K. felt utterly and completely drained.

His mother and father looked on in awe, but at first, his heart pounding in his ears, T.K. didn't understand. It took all his strength to look up at them.

They were gripping each other's hands, just as they had when they'd witnessed the final battle between their sons, the other children and the digimon they had called Apocalymon. T.k's mother had her free hand pressed against her mouth, and she was crying.

As his head cleared, T.K. understood. The heart monitor showed a strong, steady heartbeat and other lights that had been red or yellow now glowed a bright green. Jim, looking wary, stood in the doorway. "Holy-" he stopped, entered, and looked behind him. After a few moments (and a sigh of relief) an older, stern looking woman and the red haired doctor, both in long white coats, entered. T.K. slumped in his chair, and his world went dark.

T.K. woke to a stinging on his hand. His eyes flew open, and first to Matt, breathing peacefully, to a clock on the table beside the flowers- 7:09 - then to Jim, who was kneeling next to him.

"The some powerful stuff, whatever it was." Jim said, putting bandages on T.K.'s newly cleaned cuts.

"Matt?" T.K. croaked, looking not at Jim now, but at Patamon, who was sitting on his shoe and staring up at him, a worried look in his blue eyes.

"He's ok," the digimon chirped, flying up to look T.K. in the face. "The lady doctors checked everything, and the grey haired one said she'd never seen anything like it, but his his his-"

"His heart rate's normal again, same with his breathing, brain activity and even his temperature. It's all back to how it should be, he's even better than yesterday. We feel confidant that he'll be able to shake this, whatever it is." Jim finished for the digimon. "That light stuff saved his life. How on earth did you do that?"

"He's a Digidestined." said Tsunomon simply, looking wide awake and more full of energy than he had in days.

Jim looked to T.K.'s parents, who were sitting now, and they nodded.

"I don't really know what that means, but - T.K., that was beyond anything I've ever seen, except for that battle four years ago."

T.K. winced as Jim bandaged the last cut, a nasty one on his cheek. The ointment the young doctor had used to clean it stung fiercely.

"Jim, Joe." T.K. said, remembering what Tai had said. Jim had to know. "Joe-"

"I know. Patomin -."

"Patamon." The white and orange bat-pig corrected.

"Patamon told me." Jim's face creased with worry, but lightened. "I know you and your friends will bring him back. You've... you've pulled off miracles before, you just did right in front of me. I have faith in you guys. I'm sorry, I'd love to stay, but I've got to see to Mr. Isatao and Ms. Kiernai. Please let me know if - if you need me, or my EMT friends, or anything, anything at all that I can do to help. Just say the word." He nodded to T.K. and his parents, then left.

T.K. yawned. It was only twenty minutes until he needed to meet Kari, Cody, and Tai, but he could use his mother's laptop to meet them in the Digital World. He sent an email on his DTerminal, asking them to let him know which section he should go to, then blinked. _I'll just close my eyes for a minute, _he thought. _Patamon's pretty tired._ Patamon was already asleep on his lap. T.K. looked at his parents, alert in their chairs on either side of Matt's bed.

T.K. blinked again, then settled deeper into the hard plastic chair. He closed his eyes, and darkness claimed him.

* * *

><p><em>He was wrapped in shadow- he fought it but it only grew tighter, he couldn't breathe! He couldn't breathe! Then it ripped, there was light, but it was <em>wrong_, it was too harsh, too pale -_

_T.K saw where he was - a bedside. Matt's. There were the same purple flowers on the table, but they were wilted. And the room was- dark, strangely dim. The machines were not beeping, not buzzing. There were no lights, green or otherwise, why weren't there lights? They hung limp and useless. Matt lay back, his mouth open in a scream, his eyes open and soulless, lifeless. T.K. reached out- he was cold._

_Cold. Cold. Cold._

No_, he tried to say but couldn't speak, no, it wasn't true, it wasn't. Matt wasn't dead, Matt was alive, Alive, this was a dream._

_But if it was a dream why couldn't he wake up? Let me go, he shouted, or thought he did. No sound came from his mouth, no sound, no sound, it had to be a dream, it had to be a dream, _please, please let this be a dream.

_The Darkness pressed in and the light, the light that wasn't Light flickered and died._

_He was staring into a black pit - no, a grave, and Kari was there next to him, in black. He was in black, and a coffin was before him. He knew in that way he always knew things in dreams that it was his brother's- but no, Matt wasn't dead, why was he dreaming this, it had to be a dream. Somewhere T.K. heard a woman crying and knew it was his mother._

It's not real _ he thought, trying to wake up, but the dream held him. A scream, Kari's scream, she was on the ground, she was shaking, it was so real, what if it was real? T.K. dropped, tried to hold her as she'd held him but she was screaming and then - she was bleeding but it wasn't blood, it was reds and blacks and creams and she was falling apart right in front of him, as he'd seen digimon do. She was shattering as he screamed for help but no one heard, no one came- _No! Kari! Kari! No! Dream, It's a dream, It's a dream, stop, stop, stop!

_And then he was falling, falling faster than he ever had, into darkness, liquid darkness that pressed in around him, he couldn't breathe. It was so cold cold cold, could you feel cold in dreams? No, he didn't think so, it was a dream, it had to be a dream. He'd seen Sora fall like this, in the digital world, into a pit that was dark and cold and empty. Matt had saved her, where was Matt, who would save him? What if that's where he was, in that same pit, what if this was real? Patamon was there, crying out, trying to reach T.K. but he was fading, turning grey- _Patamon!- _but he was dissolving, just like Kari, just like Before, just like when he'd been deleted, _NO, NO, Please no, not Again, not Again, please-

_Everyone was there, falling, screaming his name, screaming, screaming and they were falling faster and they were turning grey and he was loosing them, loosing them all, they were dying, dissolving into fragments of color but there was no color only grey and darkness, Darkness. He knew it was a dream, a dream, a dream but that part of his mind was locked away tight and it was real._

_This. Was. Real._

_He screamed too, Darkness filled his mouth but it had no taste just cold, cold, cold that sank into his bones, into him- Darkness._

No, no, no, plea-

_It was a dream it was real it was a dream, a dream, a dream a dream a dream a dream. _

_It was real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real real real real._

**_REAL._**

**_NO!_**

_Then, Light._

_Light blossomed from the dark, the Dark, where he was falling - it caught him, buoyed him up, a hand, a net, a mattress, warm as flesh - it was Light, white, so bright, but it didn't hurt his eyes, he felt starved for it, he tried to drink it all in._

_The Light fractured into a thousand colors, then back to nine - Red, Blue, Silver, Green, Purple Orange, Pink, Gold, White - the light bands surrounded him like his mother's arms, like Angemon's wings, it was like being safe and warm and Home. Light filled him, drove the cold from every bone, the ache from every muscle, it filled him to the brim, he _was _light._

_A voice was rushing past him on banners of light, like music only half listened to - T.K. strained to hear it. It was warm and sweet, a bell, a chime, music, but he couldn't hear what it was saying...It was tugging at his ears, begging him to _listen_, he closed his eyes to the light and saw it glittering in his eyelids. This time when the Voice spoke, he understood._

It will be alright, Hope Child.

There comes Darkness. There comes chances for what you fear. There comes Light. There comes a time, a choice, a fight. The past is becoming the future.

There comes the Brightest path, the deepest shadows.

_The glitter shone in his mind's eye, gleaming brighter than before._

Have faith. Keep hope's candle, keep hope's heartbeat, keep hope's song bright, strong, alive.

All shall come and go as it is meant to.

Keep the hope, Hope Child, Golden Child, keep the Light.

_It was singing, it was whispering, a mother's voice, a friend's voice, comforting._

Do not fear the Shadows, but do not let them take you, hold you, keep you.

You must be brave, Little one. It will be alright. Hope Child, hold on to hope.

You must choose the brightest path with the deepest shadows. Remember.

It will be all right, if you keep Hope alive, keep Light alive. All right. All Light. Keep the Light burning. Keep believing. Remember. Remember

And.

Do.

Not.

Give.

Up!

_The light, the Light, the Voice, began to pulse, a heartbeat, a candle's flicker, it started to fade and then- _

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><p>The dream ended with a shower of light that clung behind T.K.'s eyes even after he woke. He blinked but the Light did not fade for several seconds.<p>

The room was dark, but for the lights on Matt's many, still beeping, machines, and the clock. 4:13.

"What?" T.K. hissed as the dream slipped away, a lost thought, a dropped cloth - so bright and shining.

Patamon woke with a start and looked around sleepily. " Wha? Oh, T.K., did you have another nightmare?" the little digimon asked softly, trying not to wake the adults, sleeping in their chairs.

T.K. thought. The Dream. It had been a nightmare - at first. He was sure of that much. It was fading away, falling away, all he remembered was Darkness and light and warmth and - he put a hand over his heart. Hope. He felt _Hope._

Matt was not dying. Everything was going to be alright. "I'm fine," he whispered back, cradling his digimon. He looked at his Dterminal- he felt bad for sleeping through Kari's email and hoped they were all OK, maybe he could go and find them-

There was no email from Kari, or Tai, or Cody. Surely Kari would have emailed? Had they thought it best to go without him? He needed to be with her, with Cody and Tai and Gatomon, Agumon, Armadillomon. He had to save his friends, and he knew, in that moment, basking in the Light of the Dream, that he could.

He typed a quick message, hoping the fight- there would be a fight, he knew, there had to be- had not yet started.

_Where are you? Matt is fine. He's not dying. Please write back. I'm sorry I fell asleep. I have to tell you something._

_T.K._

He had to tell them about the dream, about the voice, there had been a voice and it had said something- about bright pathways and dark shadows, about keeping Hope, about not giving up. He had to tell them, tell them what he knew and that was - everything was going to be alright.

He settled back in his chair, waiting, whispering about the Dream to Patamon.

"Everything's going to be alright."

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><p><strong>Awww, see?! I'm a nice author! (Readers death glare) Ok, a nice-ish author. I can be nice to the poor characters, I can even give you a break from the Really Terrible Cliffhangers, because you all deserve it for putting up with me. I have things to say about this chapter, if you want to know what, check out the blog in a day or so. Fun fact: with this chapter A Fading Hope is officially longer than A Captive Light.<strong>

**Please review! Was I too nice at the end? Was the Dream dreamlike enough? Do you want to see what comes next before the end of the month? Review!**

**Hedgi.**


	14. Return

**Well, hi. I updated! Oh, we're in the thick of it now, what came last chapter was just the calm before the storm. Well, this is kinda calm before the storm too. But not for long, you'll see. Thanks to all who reviewed!**

**Disclaimer: Take a wild guess.**

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><p><em>Cause now it's all up to you<em>

_to carry on_

_and don't look back to_

_those dark days_

_we went through_

_just carry on and don't be scared_

_cause it's up to you._

~Up To You

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><p><em>Chapter twelve: Return<em>

"That's some dream!" Patamon said, his voice low so as not to wake T.K.'s parents. "Do you think- do you think it's- what do you think that voice _was_?"

"I don't know. But I know it was more than a dream. It was some kind of message, like you said about my other dreams, it had to be, it spoke to me. Not to a character in a dream, not to my- my dream self or whatever, but to _me._ I don't remember all of what it said, what all happened, but- I feel better. Like we can really do this."

"Of course we can, T.K. Devimon might be stronger, but so're we, even just the four of us that are ... left.

T.K. smiled grimly. He did feel stronger, but more than that, he felt good about the fight that was too come. Ready.

The DTerminal buzzed and the screen lit up, casting a pale, eerie light throughout the room.

_From: Kari._

_Sent: 4:17_

_T.K., Cody,_

_Meet me at the TV near Izzy's old camp. I fell asleep too. Tai never came back. Please hurry._

_Kari._

"Oh, no," T.K. said under his breath as he read the short message.

"What?" asked Patamon, flying up to see the screen. "Ooooh. That's not good."

"Nope." T.k. said, getting to his feet. He seized Matt's green uniform jacket from the back of the chair where he'd slept- he was only in a short sleeved shirt and if it was still raining he'd get cold. It was then that he noticed- he wasn't stiff or sore from sleeping upright in a chair all night. _That's strange, but it can wait. I'll think about it later. _Still, it was funny. He was also wide awake, not groggy, and that bothered him as well but- _later, _he told himself firmly.

As Patamon looked on, T.K. grabbed his backpack from the floor, then stood in front of his mother's laptop. The portal screen was still there, underneath several word document tabs. T.K was grateful for that, he'd never accessed the portal from the black notebook computer.

"Shouldn't you wake them?" Patamon asked, looking around. The pale blue light from the screen lit his mother's face, the vase of purple flowers on the table, Matt's digivice.

"I..." T.K. didn't want to wake them, to face them before he left. He knew they supported him, knew he'd be home soon, knew he really should say something to them, so they would know- but he just couldn't. He didn't want to see the look he saw so often in his mother's eye. He'd be home soon enough anyway, it wouldn't- he didn't want to worry them.

A compromise, then, he opened a new document on the computer and wrote a small note- just in case they woke while he was still gone, in case the battle lasted long, or something unforeseeable happened. It was a strange thought, a battle that would take so long. T.K. couldn't think of a single one that had lasted more than half an hour without pause.

_Mom, Dad._

_I'm in the digital world. Will be back soon. Don't worry._

_I love you,_

_T.K._

Then he lifted his digivice and felt himself being pulled through the portal.

* * *

><p>He landed with a <em>thud<em> on the ground before the small television, which crackled with the usual static. Kari was already there - she helped him to his feet. The sky had cleared and light from the strange digital world constellations shone down, giving off more light than T.K. would have thought possible- but then, this was the digital world. There were forests of telephone poles and empty vending machines- why should anything be normal or follow logic in such a strange place? T.K. dug for his flashlight, speaking quickly. " What did you mean, Tai never came back. Tell me he decided to stay and wait for us." He already knew what Kari's response would be, but didn't want to believe it.

She was in a panic. "He never emailed! After half an hour, I told Cody he might as well go home, use his own computer, his Mom'd be worried, and Tai might be a bit late, he's always late- and we were so tired, so Cody left and I - I fell asleep! Mom and Dad stayed at Grandma's, so I didn't wake up until your email, and," she looked around the barren landscape- there was no sign of anyone but the two of them and their digimon, Gatomon having curled up nearby and fallen back asleep. "He's not here! He said he'd be here, he said he'd _be_ here!" She started to cry. T.k. reached out an touched her arm. "I'm sure he'll be fine," he said. Kari shook.

"What if Devimon has him?" she asked fearfully.

"Then we'll get him back, him and everyone." Gatomon had woken up from her catnap and rubbed her head against Kari's knee. "You'll see."

Kari nodded, sniffing. Out of habit, her hand reached up for her crest and touched empty air. "You said you had something to tell me - to tell us," she said, remembering. "You said Matt was ok, did he...?"

"No, but Jim said he's doing better, they think he'll be fine, he'll wake up - and I helped, with my digivice. I think that if we all used our digivices, used them like we did in that fight - it - it might work, it might bring him back. But, that wasn't it. Kari, I had another dream, but it wasn't just a dream, I know it wasn't. It started off really dark, bad. I don't remember much, but it was cold and dark- and then there was all this Light, and, oh Kari, I heard something, a voice, music - like bells - it said- it said-

" 'Be brave, little one' ?" Kari asked.

The words were fuzzy in T.K.'s memory, but as Kari spoke they clicked into place.

"Yes! Yes, yes! Did you dream it too? What was it, and that light?"

"No, I, yes. But, T.K., I didn't dream it last night- this night? I had a dream like it six weeks ago. When Ken had me in his base."

T.K. was floored. "What?'

Kari nodded, and both digimon sat up, intent. This was news to Gatomon, and the cat digimon pricked up her ears. Kari nodded, her hair falling forward to hide her eyes as she bent to scratch her digimon's head. "When Ken kidnapped me. I had a dream. It was so dark, and I was alone and lost, and then there was a voice- music, light - and I didn't know what it was. I do now. I heard it yesterday, before it took over. It's the Digital world Spirit, T.K. And yesterday it said it again. 'Pathways are forming, Light child. Past is becoming the future. you must choose the brightest path, with-'"

"The deepest shadows." T.K. finished as he _remembered._ " I don't remember all it said, but that part, I remember. And it said- not to fall into shadow, and that things would be alright."

"All Light." Kari whispered, almost to herself.

There was silence, in the starlight, as the four thought. The Digital world's spirit had spoken to them. What did it mean, the brightest path? What did it mean by dark shadows? And that other part- T.K. didn't remember it from his dream, but it chilled him. _Past is becoming the future._

Patamon spoke after a moment. " Um, not to change the subject or anything, well, yes to change the subject because you both having the same psychic dream is kinda creepy-weird- but where're Cody and Armadillomon? Are they coming, how long can we wait, cause our friends need us, but we'll need all the help we can get. No offense," he added to Gatomon.

"None taken, hamster," She replied. Patamon fluffed up his fur. He _hated_ being called a hamster as much as he hated being called a mouse - or worse, a Peek-a-chew, whatever that was. Gatomon liked to call him all three, depending on her mood.

"You have us!" A tiny digimon hopped into the light. It was a Snobotamon, and with her came two more, two Koromon and one of the Yokomon villagers.

"What are you doing here?" asked Kari, looking at the small, blobbish, bouncing digimon.

The bigger of the two Koromon hopped forward. " Captain of Koromon of Her Highness Princess Mimi's Army." He said proudly. "At your service."

"We got word she was captured, we want to help you save her and the other Digidestined," peeped the smallest, male, Snobotamon.

"We're going to fight the Dark One!" chimed in the Yokomon.

Gatomon purred.

Suddenly, light poured from the television set, and the digimon and two humans took several hurried steps backward. Cody appeared and landed hard on his feet, Armadillomon just after him, landing to his left.

"I'm sorry I fell asleep." he said, bowing formally. "It's lucky I woke up early."

"You mean the email didn't wake you?" Patamon wanted to know.

"Nah, he gets up in an hour normally, anyway.." Armadillomon said.

Gatomon stopped purring. Her jaw dropped. " Are you crazy?" she asked the youngest Digidestined flatly.

"Yep!" Armadillomon said, laughing. Cody only rolled his eyes.

"Very funny."

"It was." Gatomon agreed. "Or it could be that it's four AM. Either way." She shrugged, and licked one paw.

Cody ignored her. "What happened to Tai?"

"We think Devimon got him," Kari said quietly. "We have to fight him, now, get everyone back before," her voice rose," before something terrible happens, Izzy's been gone for almost 48 hours, he could be-" she cut herself off with what sounded like a sob. Her friends were not dead, they could not be dead, but what if they were hurt?

"We'll beat him," Cody said in his hoarse voice. "But, we need to think about our plan-"

"No! We have to fight him, our plan is to fight him, now! My brother, our friends!" Kari's russet eyes blazed with fire.

"But there are only three of us-"

"And us!" squeaked a Koromon,

"Maybe- maybe we should try to rescue them without a fight, if we can. I'm not saying run away, I'm only saying-"

"We might not want to go in guns blazing- er digimon attacking." Armadillomon finished for his human.

Kari was silent.

"We could be spies for you!" the smallest Koromon said.

"Sometimes the Dark One hunts away from his mountain, looking for digimon to enslave." the Yokomon agreed. " We could find out."

T.K. nodded. "We'll have to fight him, sooner rather than later, but if we can fight him all together, that's be better." With a pang. he remembered when it had just been him and Patamon against the demon digimon, and Patamon had paid the price. that could not happen again, not if T.K. could prevent it.

Kari paced for a moment, then stopped. "Let's go. Now." She looked down to Gatomon. "Do you need another energy bar?"

"Yuck, no. I'll take a tuna treat, though."

Kari smiled a little and handed over the packet of treats, which Gatomon devoured in an eyeblink. Kari raised her DTerminal and Digivice, and the cat digimon started to glow. beside her, T.K. did the same.

"Digi-Armor Energize!" they called.

**Gatomon Armor Digivolve to... Nefertimon! **

**Patamon Armor Digivolve to... Pegasusmon!**

The two winged digimon stood , gleaming in the light of the stars and flashlight beams.

"You and Armadillomon can tide with me." T.K. told Cody as he mounted up.

"And you can ride with me!" Kari smiled at the members of Mimi's army.

"You heard the lady!" the Captain Koromon said, bouncing up onto the sphinx digimon.

"If you tickle me, I will drop you." Nefertimon said, turning her head to stair at them. "Don't think I won't."

"Nefertimon!" Kari exclaimed.

"What? I'll catch them, you know how good at catching I am!"

Kari sighed. When the digimon were settled, she nudged her slightly cranky digimon, and Nefertimon spread her wide, feathery wings. Bunching her powerful back legs, she sprang into flight, Pegasusmon with his passengers just behind her

The night air was chilly, but Kari didn't mind - she felt alive and awake and brimming with energy, full of Light. She was going to save her brother. _Hold on, Tai. Hold on, everyone. We're coming!"_

* * *

><p>The flight was smooth, the wind crisp and clean on T.K.'s face. He felt more awake than he had in days, more rested than he had in days. After years of nightmares, he was going to face Devimon again.<em> I should be terrified.<em> He thought as he held tightly to Pegasusmon's mane. _ But I'm not. He won't beat us, not this time. And this time, we'll get him, once and for all. We have to._

Pegasus seemed to read his mind. "I have faith in us, T.K. Devimon won't know what hit him."

T.K. smiled, and they flew faster. Above them, the stars stayed constant and unmoving; below, the forest zipped past in one green-black blur, falling away to show rock and- there, just head, perhaps three hundred fifty yards, three hundred, two hundred fifty, lay the base of Infinity Mountain.

It was well named, its jagged peak seemed to reach the very stars as it pierced the sky. Pathways were carved by eons of wind and rain and digimon travelers, winding around and around, from foot to summit. It was awe inspiring- and terrifying. Here was the mountain where the Digidestined had met the first of the Dark digimon, here was where Darkness had first reared its head, here was where nightmares that had lasted for so long had been born. Here the battle would begin- or rather, T.K. reflected, here was where the battle would resume. _It never really ended, did it? Not for me, anyway. I never got over what happened, it's _always_ been in my head." _T.K. grimaced. Behind him, Cody stiffened, then shouted a warning that was torn away by wind.

There was no need. T.K. and Kari and the assorted digimon saw- a great white shape flying full speed at them.

"A Unimon!" cried the captain Koromon.

As the two armor digimon dove down and to either side to avoid a collision, the Yokomon wailed, "Seriously? Why does it keep attacking us? Do I have a Unimon magnet on me or something?"

Pegasusmon nickered a laugh, though it was strained, as the third Koromon chirped, "Nope, don't see one."

The Unimon reared in mid air, screaming in rage and dove at Pegasusmon.

"Hold on!" the golden digimon shouted. T.K. threw his arms around the digimon's neck and felt Cody wrap an arm around him- and then Pegasusmon shot upward- a blast of energy came rocketing towards them and Pegasusmon rolled. Armadillomon cried out in panic, his paws wrapped around Cody's free arm- they righted.

Kari already held her digivice up like a shield, light pouring from it- the Unimon, red eyes blazing, dodged it, butNefertimon called " Cat's Eye Beam!" just as Pegasusmon gave voice to his own attack, "Eques Beam!"

The light from both attacks struck the Unimon at the same time and in the distance there was a low _boom. _The Unimon fell, then caught the air and flew, arrow straight, away from the noise- and the gears it had ushered in.

Cody and T.K. held out digivices as Pegasusmon dodged- strangely they clustered around T.K. and Cody, but not Nefertimon. Kari Cried out, letting pink light gleam from her digivice- and- her hands?- T.K. couldn't tell, Pegasusmon rolled again to avoid a stream of gears, light blazed from Digivices and attacks.

Someone screamed.

"Cody!" T.K. lunged for the shorter boy, who was falling, strangely still, but he missed, Cody tumbled from Pegasusmon's back, Armadillomon with him- it had been he who had called out, and he continued to as they fell.

Nefertimon plunged after him.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah. Ending it there. Yes, it was short. The chapters will be short from here on out. I'm so mean. At least there were some funny bits? Did you like them? Review?<strong>


	15. Light's Prayer

**Well, hi. Sorry about taking longer- it wasn't too long, was it? This is my busy season. A full explanation will be up on the blog in a bit. a calendar will also be posted there. Thanks to all who read and reviewed, thanks to all who just read- enjoy! Um, yeah. we're in the thick of it now. Like really. Past is becoming the future, readers, and Pathways are forming. Be Afraid, be very afraid. (or don't, but don't say I didn't warn you. Stuff's about to get real)**

**Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.**

* * *

><p><em>I see around me people I love<em>

_and I feel strong_

_nothing can stop me now_

_you took my family_

_can take my life_

_but I won't be defeated_

_that at least is clear._

_~Chapter 34, Riddletm*_

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><p><em>Chapter Thirteen: Light's Prayer<em>

"Cody!" shrieked Kari as Nefertimon dove, her small digimon burdens clinging by their teeth to Kari's backpack- Cody was falling through the air, still as stone. Wind whipped through Kari's short brown hair- almost there, just a little bit farther- just a little bit faster!

Nefertimon opened her mouth and caught Cody by his tunic, beating her wings as she began to descend.

Pegasusmon, with T.K. and Armadillomon sped after them, touching the soft, damp forest floor just moments after they did.

"What happened, Cody, Cody!" Armadillomon bounded through the dross and touched his partner lightly on the arm. Cody didn't respond- he lay still, his eyes closed, breathing shallowly.

"It was Gears." Captain Koromon said, releasing Kari's now slightly mangled backpack. "There were Gears, they came, they hit him."

"Oh, no." Kari said under her breath. No, not again, not when they were already so outnumbered, how could the two of them do what had to be done? Nefertimon laid her head on Kari's shoulder.

T.K. pulled out his digivice. "Maybe we can-" but the Yokomon squeaked "Wait! You'll use up all your energy, and then how'll you fight the Dark One?"

T.K. grit his teeth, "Cody's my friend! I can't just leave him!"

Pegasusmon, slightly winded, gave a short whinny, adding in "But the others need us more quickly-"

Kari closed her eyes. She was shivering in the cool night air, though it had to be getting close to morning- the sky looked slightly grey, not inky black, in the east.

"Send him home- no, send him to your parents." she said at last, digging in her pack. "I brought Tai's laptop- hope he doesn't mind- so we could escape quicker. We can send him to the hospital- can't we? Your mom had her computer there when we visited- and then, after we free the others, we can all go and help both him and Matt."

T.K. nodded. " That sounds like a better plan than I had," he grimaced. Turning to Armadillomon, he said "Will you tell my parents what happened? They can say- they woke up and found him, that he's one of Matt's friends, they don't know where he came from, but-"

"But it looks like the same thing. Yeah, I can do that." The digimon nodded in agreement.

Kari opened the laptop, and pointed it at Cody's still form. T.K. opened the portal, then dodged out of the way- in a beam of white light, the nine year old and his digimon were gone.

The smaller Koromon broke the silence. "That. is so. Cool."

Nefertimon rolled her eyes.

T.K. stared at the ground, then looked up as Kari fed Nefertimon and Pegasusmon chunks from a large chocolate bar, something Nefertimon was obviously enjoying very much.

"It's...It's like old times." He offered. "Just you and me- and gatomon and Patamon, of course."

"Hey!" the Snobotamon yipped. T.K. held up his hands in apology- " I meant- for the big fight, if there has to be one." he said at last. It was darker here, but he could make out the tiny smile on Kari's lips. "Yeah," she said, remembering. "Like old times."

It had only been the two of them when they'd fought Piedmon, and they'd survived that. Kari remembered the way T.K. had protected her, helped her climb the enchanted rope, told her to go on without him when Piedmon had grabbed him. It had been T.K.'s hope and strength that had protected her in the end, and defeated Piedmon. _"He's always protected me." _She realized. _From the very beginning. through all of this crazy adventure, from Piedmon, to the Dark Ocean, to Ken- always."_ Kari reached out and touched T.K.'s arm in the dimness. "Thank you." she said softly. He didn't hear her words, he was muttering to himself about dreams and not giving up. louder, Kari said, "T.K., we need to go."

They mounted up, splitting the squad of Mimi's army between them, and took off, into the diamond specked night sky, tinged with grey, towards the peak of Infinity Mountain.

* * *

><p>"Shhh!" T.K. hissed to Yokomon, who was panicking quietly.<p>

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just scared, I'll be quiet." She whimpered, her petals wilting slightly.

The smaller Koromon nuzzled her. "It'll be fine Yoko. Captain will get back and tell us what we need to know, and them we'll sneak and save Mimi, and Mimi's friends." She comforted.

Kari squinted into the gloom, eager for the little pink Digimon to hurry up and return.

It had been only five minutes since they had landed and hidden behind a large pile of boulders, Patamon and Gatomon back in their smaller forms. Captain Koromon had seen the large, flat landing and cave beyond it and offered to scout and see if he could find the captives, and the two humans had agreed, and he had gone. The seconds seemed like hours, and Kari often felt her hand at her neck, wishing she could tangle her fingers in the cord of her crest.

T.K. chewed a finger nail. This was it, this was the moment, he was sure. Devimon was there, in that cave, beyond the ruin of stone pillars and walls that littered the area just ahead of the rockfall. Patamon wedged himself under T.K's other hand, making soft soothing noises, trying to reassure his human, but still, T.K. worried. what if they weren't strong enough, what if devimon was too strong, what if- _Do not fear the Shadows, but do not let them take you, hold you, keep you. _More memories of the Dream trickled in, filling him up. He could not let himself doubt. He had to believe that he and Kari could win, because if he didn't- _There comes chances for what you fear._

More than ever he wished Matt were there, telling him he was there, that he believed they could do this. even when they'd fought Piedmon, and it had only been him and Kari and Patamon, he'd had the Keychain, he'd had his crest, he'd had- what? A better chance? A stronger chance? No, not really. But it had helped, to have Matt's voice in his ears, even if it had only been imagined- had it been imagined?

Though it had been years, T.K. remembered those words, had clung to them. "I have faith in you. Have faith in yourself. Don't ever give up. No matter what happens-"

Koromon bounded back, startling him out of his thoughts.

"In the cave in the cave in the cave, I FOUND them!" he cheered, louder than anyone would have liked.

"There's a big Gear, two of 'em, bigger 'n you, and behind it I heard Princess Mimi! And some other humans too. I think. She was talking to someun."

The sky was much greyer now, fading into dawn, though sunrise was still some ways off. T.K. stood. "Ready?' he asked Kari, helping her to her feet. Kari nodded, her face set. "Let's- wait. Do you hear that?"

"No." T.K. said, "What is-'

"Shhh."

Kari could hear it clearly. A voice. The Voice, like a windchime, like bells, singing. _Be brave Little One, Be brave Light Child. The Past is becoming the Future, is becoming the Now. Your path is the Brightest, but with the Darkest Shadows, else the Digital world will fall, will fall, will fall. You must...he must, Hope Child, both of you, be brave, Chosen Children, Digidestined, be brave. Light must shine, Hope must gleam, must not fall to shadows, must defeat the Darkness, the Past is becoming the Future is becoming the Now, choose your Path, Light and Shadow or all shadows, all lost, lost, lost, Light Child be brave._

The music faded away, and Kari let out the breath she'd been holding. She was trembling, not with cold but with fear, what on earth had that meant- was it her past returning? Was she doomed to watch a friend die for her? How could that save the Digital world- the Past had to stay past, it could not happen Again- but- no. The Voice was right. She had to be brave.

"Kari, what, what happened?" T.k. asked, tense.

"It was the Digital World Spirit. It said- it said we have to be brave. Had to beat Devimon, or the Digital world would fall, that we couldn't fall to... fall to shadows."

T.K. nodded, he'd half expected something like this, after his Dream. He put an arm around his friend and gave her a hug. "We have to have faith in ourselves. Let's go save them."

Kari started walking, the digimon just ahead of her- when shadows began to leak from the mouth of the Cave. Kari stopped short, still a good distance back, then drew her digivice. As Devimon grew and grew, larger and larger, she screamed, "Gatomon!"

Light blossomed from the pink and silver device and enveloped the white cat, gleaming brightly.

**Gatomon, Digivolve to... Angewomon!**

"You too, Patamon!" T.K. cried, running to stand beside Kari. Light, somewhat dimmer, flared from his own digivice, Patamon gave a little squeak and began to glow-

**Patamon, Digivolve to...Angemon!**

Glowing, the two digimon advanced on Devimon, who was still growing, feeding on shadows and a trickle of Black Gears that slowed to a stop- he was out, but it hardly mattered.

He was nearly twenty feet tall.

Captain Koromon swore and began to attack, puny pink bubbles bursting.

Devimon swatted him and the Captain smashed into the now terrified Yokomon, slamming both of them into the rock where they went still, knocked out.

Kari screamed, Angwomon drew and arrow of pure, shining Light and shot it at the great monster.

It struck him cleanly, where his heart ought to have been, and Kari allowed herself a smile of triumph.

It faded as the Arrow began to dissolve into shadow.

"Angel Rod!" Angemon cried, slamming into Devimon with his bright golden staff- the Dark One tok the blow on one tattered, holey wing and laughed- raising one gnarled hand, in a voice like Darkness itself, he said " Death Hand!"

Dark energy swarmed forth, slamming into Angemon, who repelled most of it with a cry of "Holy Staff!" and spun his gleaming rod through the rushing shadow- where light touched it in shrank back, but more was moving- Angewomon shot arrow after arrow, hoping it would be enough- Devimon shot another blast of dark light at Kari- Angewomon dove to protect her human and Kari screamed.

Angemon called to the digimon he had once given his life to defeat. "Fight me! Leave them, Fight me. Or are you afraid you cannot win?"

"I fear nothing!" Devimon snarled, his red eyes blazing. " Least of all not you. I am the ruler of this world!" His eyes slid to fix on T.K., who stood motionless, a deer in headlights, trapped in the terrible moment four years earlier when Devimon had nearly killed him.

"The Small One. The Smallest is the only one I have to fear, and I fear him nor you no longer- I am Devimon, Lord of Night!" Devimon drew out the most recent of Angewomon's arrows, this one now shadow from tip to mid shaft and flung it with terrible strength.

It struck Angemon's wing, and a torrent of dark energy poured from Devimon towards the angel.

"No!" cried Angewomon, raising her hands, her voice raw " Heaven's Charm!"

Rainbow light filled the open air, then turned to greyscale, then black, then shattered. Devimon sneered. "I have learned, in my time in the world between. I am not some young darkness. I am no weak demon thing, Angel of Light. See my power!"

The darkness an another corrupted arrow flew at Angemon, his holy staff slipped from his fingers- he was glowing and then-

He dropped to the ground, Patamon once more.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." The little, battered, beaten digimon struggled to his paws.

"See how the mighty fall." Devimon laughed. " This time, the Smallest will stay that way- tiny and helpless."

T.K. ran to Patamon, scooping him up and holding him tight.

Angwomon renewed her volley of Celestial Arrows, drawing on any Light she could- the stars, they grey tinge in the sky, Kari's Light, T.k's Hope- but it was fading, her Arrows pinned Devimon for only seconds before they turned to shadows and darkness. Devimon turned on T.K., crouched near the edge of the flat land, the wide open sky behind him.

"And now, Small One, you die. I have waited eons for this moment, Child. Hundreds of years in the World between, regaining myself datum by datum, particle by particle, shadow by shadow. The Prophecy is finished. There is no Angel to die for you this time."

T.k. was rooted to the spot by terror- by rock on one side of him, a void behind and devimon closing in, one rotted hand reaching out-

"No!" Kari screamed. "No, leave him alone!" she hurled a rock, then another, Light filling her mind. Suddenly the words of the Voice echoed in her mind, and she Understood.

Devimon turned his head, a smile touching the corners of grey lips, showing fangs. "It is my destiny to destroy him, to take my place as Lord of the Digital world, King of all under Shadow. How can you, puny human girl-child, possibly think that merely shouting at me would cause me to stop? Is your heart so pure that you think you can change me, turn me from Darkness into Light? I was never Light, Digidestined."

As he spoke, T.k. tried to move, began to inch along the cliff- if he could get into the cave, Kari was near enough she could follow him, they could-

"No," Kari said as Devimon turned back to T.K., his hand moving closer and closer, just like his dreams, worse than his dreams, just like the night when Angemon had died- _ The Past is becoming the Future-_

_"No!_" Kari screamed as Angemon fit another arrow, brighter than the sun, to her bow. T.K. had always protected her. Always. _My turn._

"Then why? You pathetic, weak, timorous-"

Kari's pale face was marred by dirt and a long, healing cut from a Zhannemon feather, a tear streaked down one cheek as she stood, almost glowing in the half light of pre-dawn. She looked like an Angel herself as she gripped the staff Angemon had dropped before turning back into Patamon.

"Because it's me. I'm the Small One."

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><p><strong>I warned you! <strong>

***ducks for cover* Don't kill me for the cliffy! if you kill me I can't write more!**

**OK, now that the not-killing-me is settled, um... Did you like? how was the fight? I know it wasn't the greatest, but but but- those are all real attacks! I did *research* for this chapter. Oh, how many of you guessed the Reveal? Were you shocked?Isn't this exciting? T.K. lovers fear not, story's still about him, no matter what Kari's role is. I just missed writing her so she got some focus. She needed it. **

**Now I know it was short. But it was only, what, two weeks since my last update? three? not a whole month!And you won't need to wait a whole month for the next one. see the blog for the calendar- the holidays are coming and I get super busy, but I will make time to write. will you make time to review? Please? even it's just to tell me that I'm evil and a terrible human being for being so blasted cryptic and mean to the poor characters.**

**THANK YOU!**

**Hedgi**


	16. The Darkness Again

**So. after THAT bombshell, I guess you're ready for just about anything. Or you think you are. *evil laughter* Sorry if the editing job's not so great. I'm pretty much posting as I write. Those of you who haven't read it, I recommend looking at my recent story " No Knowledge of what Comes" Its got Izzy, and is a mini companion to A Fading Hope.**

**As always, I love your reviews. Also, I really miss Izzy, so this chapter has an Izzy flashback in it. mostly because this chapter was way too short.**

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><p><em>Hope fades<em>

_Into the world of night_

_Through shadows falling_

_Out of memory and time _

_Don't say " We have come now to the end"..._

_~Into the West*_

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><p><em>Chapter 14: The Darkness Again.<em>

_Three years ago, the Digital world._

_"Tai?" Kari woke in darkness. She had had yet another nightmare, even with her magic circle. Gatomon twitched at the 8-year-old's side, and aside from the small campfire, all was Dark. she was terrified._

_"Kari?" it was Izzy, with Tentomon. Kari sniffed. She didn't want anyone to think she was a baby, or weak. Tai was one thing, but Izzy, so smart and strong?_

_"Did you have a bad dream?" he asked kindly, looking around. Everyone else was fast asleep._

_Kari shook her head._

_"It's ok if you did." Izzy said. He was still awkward around all his new friends, though he'd been with most of them for over a month, Digi-World time. He wished he was more like Tai, but only a little. Kari had been outgoing, quick to befriend everyone, particularly T.K., but just now she seemed shy and timid. Izzy knew how that felt._

_"When I was your age, I was scared of the dark." he offered. Kari blinked._

_"Really? But you're so smart, and Mama says there's no reason to be scared of the dark."_

_"Really." Izzy said. "My mom said the same thing, but I was still scared."_

_"But not any more?"Kari reached out to stroke Gatomon's soft white fur. The cat digimon shifted and purred softly._

_Izzy hesitated. "A little. But my mom taught me something. It's ok to be scared, but you can't let it control you. 'Feel the fear to the count of ten'" he counted quickly. " And let yourself be afraid. 'Then count once more to feel brave again.'" He counted back down, quickly at first, slowing by the time he reached one. " And try to breath deeply and remember that you don't have to be afraid. Because we're here, your brother, and Matt, and all of us, and we'll protect you. That's a promise."_

_Kari smiled, the flickering light from the fire dancing across her pale face. She sniffed once, put her arms around Izzy's waist in a tight hug, then releasing him. She lay back down on the soft grass, wrapping one of Joe's space blankets around her and tracing a circle in the dirt. Then she counted, and was asleep before she reached 'One"._

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><p><em><span>Now<span>_

_Ten, Nine, eight. _Kari thought as she watched Devimon advance on her best friend. Coolness entered her veins as she calmed.

"And now, Small One, you die. I have waited eons for this moment, Child. Hundreds of years in the World between, regaining myself datum by datum, particle by particle, shadow by shadow. The Prophecy is finished. There is no Angel to die for you this time." Devimon's voice was the very feeling of Darkness, it rang in her ears, and all she could think was-

"No! No, Leave him alone!" She reached down and hurled a rock- it glanced off Devimon's tattered wing.

Words entered her head, words that she knew all too well._ Pathways are forming. Yours is the Brightest path with the Darkest Shadows. Past is becoming the Future is becoming the Now. You must be brave, Light child. Light child. Light child. _

_Of course. Of course. _The words all make sense. It _ALL_ makes sense. _Seven. Six. Five._

Devimon turned to stare at her, eyes gleaming. "It is my destiny to destroy him, to take my place as Lord of the Digital world, King of all under Shadow. How can you, puny human girl-child, possibly think that merely shouting at me would cause me to stop? Is your heart so pure that you think you can change me, turn me from Darkness into Light? I was never Light, Digidestined."

T.K. tried to move, Kari could see that- Devimon was turning back-

_It's me. It's always been me. The Eighth Child. The Crest of Light. The Light child. This is what the Voice meant. What it's been trying to tell me._

_"_No_." _She said, then repeated _"No!_"

With her words, Angewomon fit another arrow to her bow. T.K. had always protected her. Always. _My turn. _Kari thought. _I'm the Smallest, the Small one._

"Then why, you pathetic, weak, timorous-"

She leaned down and took up the staff Angemon had dropped when he'd turned back into Patamon- strangely it had remained. Just holding it filled her with energy, with Hope. She was the Small one. It did not matter that Patamon could not fight.

T.K.'s face was white with terror; in the grey -predawn light he clung to the only semi conscious Patamon.

_Four, three, two._

"Because it's me. I'm the Small one." _One. _Her voice quaked but her knees were steady, she was steady, she was not afraid.

Angewomon fired her arrow, striking Devimon's right wing. The Arrow flared before before slowly seeping into shadow, and Devimon yelped in something like pain.

"What?!" cried T.K., looking from Devimon to Kari. "No, it's me," he said, desperate to have Devimon glaring at him and not at Kari. "You came after me, it's not her." He had to distract Devimon, Kari and Angewomon were their only shot, if he could just get Devimon to think they weren't a threat- he could not let his history repeat.

But Devimon turned to the side to face Kari, who stood in the center of the large flat area, strewn with rubble.

"You?" He said, red eyes gleaming with something like triumph. A terrible smile touched the corners of his mouth. "Yes. You were the girl-child that defeated Myotismon. You _are_ the Smallest." He held out his open palms, a ball of energy like black fire growing in them.

"Look out!" T.K. screamed- Angewomon dove as the darkness streamed from Devimon's hands; for a terrifying moment all Kari could see were the bats of Myotismon's Grisly Wing- but then Angewomon's feathery wings filled her vision.

"Heaven's Charm!" the Angel of Light called , and the bright rainbow of light shone all around, the dark fire vanished into it and Kari clung to her digimon in gratitude, dropping Angemon's staff.

With one wing shielding Kari, Angewomon continued to draw light arrows from the murk and fire them. These arrows were not the brilliant white they had been, but faintly pink, as Kari began to glow faintly.

These arrows did not destroy Devimon, who countered most of them with blasts of dark energy, but when they struck he winced in pain, and once he howled as a brightly gleaming dart struck him in the chest; he threw another ball of darkness at Kari.

Patamon had slipped into unconsciousness, and T.K. did the only thing he could to keep the promises he had made to protect his friend. Still holding his limp digimon, T.K. snatched up a rock and lobbed it with all the strength he could muster. The missile struck just as one of the pink arrows connected, Devimon was thrown sideways and back, he stumbled, his wings unfurled for balance, though they helped little.

"Go Angewomon!" Kari cried, throwing a grateful look to T.K., who nodded and went to pick up another stone- this one larger.

Kari held up her digivice, willing it to glow. Between its light, which shone like a light house beacon, and the rose pink arrows, Devimon seemed to be faltering.

T.K. edged toward the opening in the cliff, Devimon's cave, where Captain Koromon had said his friends were being held.

Though Devimon still watched Kari, he spoke to the boy.

"You won't find them. Do you think I would let them live after you came for them, after your little friend saw them? Do you think me a fool who would risk a rescue? I may have been a fool when we first met, human boy, but I have spent hundreds of years in the world between. I am not a fool any longer."

T.K. froze. It wasn't true, it couldn't be, it - no. The Voice had said everything would be ok.

"You're Lying!" he shouted, as the image from his dream, his friends dissolving into data, came to the front of his mind, he flinched. _No_. Not after everything that had happened, Everything the Voice had said. His friends were not dead. He hurled another chunk of stone as Angewomon fired her brightest arrow yet. This one did not melt into shadow but shattered into a thousand shards of Light.

_Past is becoming the Future._ Kari thought. _Not if I can help it. No one is going to die for me. Not Again. Never Again. My friends are alive, they have to be. I'm the only one that can stop him. Past is becoming the Future- not my past. Not this time._

"Angewomon!" she called and held up her Digivice, aiming it not at Devimon but at her own digimon. Light poured from it in a thick beam, white tinged with the pink of Kari's crest. Her free hand reached out of habit for the chain and closed again on nothing but air- but this time Kari did not mourn for it. There was no time for that.

She followed T.K.'s lead and threw rocks with one hand, while her left hand clutched the digivice that steadily shone brighter and brighter.

Devimon bared his fangs. "You think you can defeat me?" He asked, though he sounded winded. "Now I destroy you as well, Small one." He backhanded Angewomon with tremendous force, her shot missed and she slammed into the cliff face, Kari tripped backward as Devimon advanced-

"No!" T.K. yelled, running forward. "Kari!" Kari was up against the wall, her digivice pulsing but it wasn't working, Devimon continued, hand outstretched. T.K. screamed again, Patamon under one arm, he had to reach her, he was almost there- the ground under him shifted and there was a loud _crack._ A large section of the cliff face where he had been running moved, rose up into the air, speeding up and away with such force T.K. had to flatten himself to keep from falling.

"T.K.!" Kari screamed as Angewomon got to her feet, an arrow fitted to her bow- loosed- went clean through Devimon's rotted hand. Devimon howled in pain and darkness gathered in his palms.

T.K. was flying, like before when Devimon had separated them, he'd done so again, Matt and Cody in the hospital, the others- not dead, they weren't dead, they couldn't be dead- _now I destroy you as well- _the words echoed in T.K.'s mind as he continued to scream; the world was dropping away but he could still see the battle, he was flying up more than away but-

Kari was now entirely glowing, gleaming pink and white, light pulsing from her form and that of Angewomon. Against the grey sky T.K. could make out black fire, Devimon's power, the two clashed, once, twice, neither winning, neither loosing, just power, burning-

T.K's rock started to fall, smoothly, still flying but gaining speed. His eyes were still locked on the battle, as Light and Dark flared. The Darkness enclosed the Light. Pink as the dawn with all dawn's splendor, Kari kept the Dark at bay, but it closed in again and again, closed _over, _T.K. was screaming her name, but the wind tore the words from his lips. He couldn't see the Light for a moment, then it shot up like a beacon, a pillar of pink Light that reached up through mist and cloud to pierce the Darkness and the very sky.

And with the light came a wordless scream from Kari.

The scream cut off abruptly, and a second later, a heartbeat later, a lifetime later as T.K. fell through the sky, hurtling towards the ground and trees, the Light flickered.

The Light faltered.

The Light died.

T.K. hit the ground, and the Darkness that Kari hadn't been strong enough to drive off enclosed him as well.

They had lost.

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><p><strong>I know, I know. <strong>

**Short. That was really short. insanely short, meanly short. But it was either short now or longer later and yeah... you'd probably have rather had that, huh? well, um. Yay for quick updates?**

**Um, don't kill me. I'd rather not die. Please, go ahead and rant. I deserve that. Um. Yeah.**

**Fair warning: next chapter will have some angst. I'll try and have it as realistic as possible, and as minimal as possible since I certainly know that too much angst is annoying. But it's needful.**

**Remember to check the blog for previews and updates.**

**Poll: would you rather have the next chapter next week and the next chapter of "No Knowledge of what Comes" at Christmas, or the other way around? I leave it in your hands entirely.**

**And leave a review, pretty please. We are so close to 100, and it would mean a lot to me to reach that. In fact, if we reach 100, I'll post the next chapter( or no knowledge) on Thursday rather than Saturday.**

**HNA**


	17. Endless Night

***ducks behind desk* Um, Hi. I'm back early! Please don't kill me for that ending. and all the bombshells I dropped on you. If you've figured out the code... well, never mind. I hope you're having a saner month than I am. with gifts for an unholy number of cousins and flashbacks to Dark Times and prepping to move back to Idaho for school, it's a Christmas miracle I'm able to write so much. **

**Disclaimer: yeah, this is not canon at all. I do not own Digimon. I'm just having fun in someone else's toybox.**

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><p><em>I'm trying to hold on<em>

_Just waiting to hear your voice_

_One word, just a word will do_

_To end this nightmare _

_When will the dawning break_

_Oh endless night_

_Sleepless I dream of the day_

_When you were by my side_

_Guiding my path_

_But now I can't find the way._

_~ Endless Night_

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><p><em>Chapter Fifteen: Endless Night.<em>

T.K. hit the ground, and the Darkness that Kari hadn't been strong enough to drive off enclosed him as well.

They had lost.

_T.K. stared up at the mountain, as the stone palace shuddered and burst, a great demon rising from its midst. Devimon. The shadowy Digimon rose, landing at the foot of the mountain, but so massive that the demon stood at eye level with the cliffs above the path. _ _T.K blinked, pinned up against the stone wall by his own terror. Patamon lay on the ground close by, Tai further down the path, crawling, one hand held out._

_"Go!" he heard his friends call out, attacking with everything they had, only to be cast aside by the brown wrapped hands of Devimon. Then the demon digimon turned to him, a grin stretching across his dark face. T.K looked left, then right, but there was no where to run to, his legs were jelly as he pressed his back to the rough stone of the cliff. Cold seeped through his clothes, numbing him._

_They were all there, Tai, Mimi, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Joe, with defeated champion digimon sprawled around the mountain and cliffs, unable to move._

_"Matt!" His voice was small, his 8 year old lungs gripped tightly in panic as the hand drew closer, as if in slow motion. He looked down the cliffside to where Matt was, where he'd fallen hard. Slowly, Matt vanished, and then the others, one by one. His brother was gone. "Matt! Patamon! Help me!" The hand! Patamon dove, tears streaming from big blue eyes. Too late! The hand closed, pulling him away from the safety, the security, of the stone, squeezing tighter than the fear. The world went dark, Pain- _

_Then, nothing._

The dream shifted, even unconscious T.K. knew it was a dream because it hadn't been like that this time, it had been Kari, she'd been there, she'd-

_The was standing by her bedside in a grand mansion, a white cloth pressed to her pink forehead. She was sick. His mind said, " Another memory" but at the same time he was living it for the first time. In the distance he heard explosions. Sora ran in, her face white, Biyomon at her heels- "T.K." she said, "what do we do?"_

_That wasn't right, last time- there had been a last time- T.K. had known what to do but this time, this time he was frozen. Could they move Kari? What if Tai and Izzy couldn't find them? What if Kari got more sick outside, what if what if what if? He couldn't move, the explosions were getting closer- Kari closed her eyes with a whispered - "I trust you."_

_What to do- he'd done this before, what had he done? He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think. Sora was screaming-_

_Which way to run? they had to go, but where could they hide?_

_Oh no oh no oh no- suddenly, light. Brilliant light and the Mansion was torn to shreds._

_Everything turned back into darkness. Darkness._

Again the dream twisted, light and patterns appearing out of the murk. G_rey scale darkness and light, a castle. He was running. The part of him that had lived this before cried out- Piedmon. The name froze the blood of the T.K. who was new, the Dream-self. He remembered- Sora, he'd promised Sora something- to take care of Kari- and now they were running. No Patamon, no Gatomon, no help-"Run."_

_Kari raced ahead of him, they opened heavy doors and found- a balcony. no escape. What to do, what to do, Piedmon was coming!_

_A basket appeared, and from it rose a rope, leading up into the sky, so dark, slashed with images of home- earth._

_"You first," he told Kari. She went. He followed. And then Piedmon had him and he screamed because what to do, what to do and Kari was clinging to him and he'd promised he'd PROMISED and he had to save her but she wouldn't leave him._

_They were falling._

_Falling._

_Kari was screaming, he was screaming and he'd saved them before what had he done - it was just a dream it was a dream._

_He looked at Matt's keychain and thought, "I'm sorry."_

_They hit the ground._

_Darkness._

And again, light seeped into the darkness but it was not welcoming, if anything it made the darkness bleaker.

_He knelt by a tall Control Spire, sawing at wire cord with a metal feather. He knew this scene. Kari was bound to the spire, her bonds only half cut. Ken, still the Digimon emperor, snapped his fingers as battle raged. A digimon, Airdramon swooped down. Only a minute longer- the feather snapped._

_He was clawing at the cord, his hands were bleeding, could you bleed in dreams?What had he done before, he was frozen and he didn't know. He had saved her before, but how? _

_Airdramon attacked. T.K. screamed. She crumpled to the ground, her head was bleeding, she wasn't breathing, she was gone- it was a dream, he'd saved her, he'd saved her! But not this time. He could have saved her, he had saved her once, but not this time! Why couldn't he think? he couldn't breathe. Airdramon fired again. Darkness, again. T.K welcomed it. _

_No more. Please. He had relived the moments when it had been up to him to save Kari. To save his friends. And he'd been helpless. They had only been dreams but they stung his heart._

_They had been dreams but she was gone. She was really gone. They were all _gone._ Overlaid with the Dream was Truth. He had failed his friends._

When he woke the world wasn't much brighter than his dreams. The world was cold and grim and grey. Shadows were heavy and pronounced as he sat up and looked around him.

He was on a beach. The sand was cold, as was the grey water that lapped at his legs. The sky was more darkness than light, though it had to be near dawn. Mist swirled around the banks, and a dense grey-black fog loomed over the equally dark water.

He was so cold, but as he realized where he was, he found he didn't care.

Beside him, Patamon stirred. The little creature looked smaller, his fur duller, his blue eyes wide and lost.

"The Dark Ocean!" Patamon said, and his voice echoed flatly. It seemed like nothing else was alive in the whole world. For all T.K. knew or cared, that was true. His friends were gone. He had failed them and they were gone and he'd broken his Promise.

He stared across the Dark Ocean, silent. Empty.

"T.K.?" Patamon asked, putting a paw on T.K.'s leg.

T.K. did not trust his voice- he could feel a huge lump in his throat. And what could he say in any case?

_Kari,_ he thought, brokenly._ I'm sorry._

He thought of his friends. Dead. Were they all dead and gone, how could they be gone, after all that they'd been through together? Through all the teasing and joking and adventures? He felt as though his heart was shattering.

"TeeKaay?" Patamon asked again, siting on his human's lap. The water was rising. It moved slowly, lapping at the sand and the boy who sat in it, rising and drawing back into itself, then returning in waves that increased, ever so slowly in size. T.K. didn't notice.

"It's _over,"_ he said at last. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, then spilled over, the only heat in the whole world, the only warmth. In the pre-dawn- if dawn would ever come- all there was in the world was cold, grey fog, and cold, grey water, and cold, grey sand.

T.K. could not feel his legs. His whole body felt numb. The water now reached partway passed his knees with every wave.

_It doesn't matter._

_"_No, it's not, there's still you an' me!" Patamon squeaked, shivering. It was so cold, so dark and _cold._

T. his head bitterly. "And what can we do? We lost. We failed. We're trapped here and-"

" You don't know that, get up, please T.K.!"

T.K. did not stand. He wanted to sit and cry and just - be. What was the point of standing up?

"We can't beat him, Patamon. Ka-Kari was the only one who could, and- she's..." a sob. "She's gone. She's dead, Patamon."

More tears, not of rage, not of pain, but sorrow and a bone deep confusion. Pressure pounded behind his eyes, a fierce ache. He closed them against the half-light.

Patamon shoved his head under T.K.'s hand- T.K. was so cold, people needed to be warm, but what could Patamon do? He couldn't take off his fur like Gabumon. Gabumon. Would he ever see his friend again? Any of them? Digimon were reborn, but...

"T.K." the little digimon was crying, too. "T.K., we have to- we have to- we have to-" Do what? What could they do? "We have to go fight!"

"Why?" T.K. asked. From the rock in his throat to his numb legs, he felt nothing. He was empty, he was drained, all he felt was longing and pain and numbness. "We can't... we can't win. Kari- it was always Kari and she's _gone."_

How could Kari be gone? She was his best friend. He'd have died to save her, but it hadn't mattered. Nothing mattered. Devimon had won. Devimon had won, and his friends were gone and there was nothing he could do.

He was not filled with righteous anger or a desire for revenge, because to act on either of those, to feel either of those, he would have needed some tiny flame of hope, some spark, even just the barest glimmer that it would matter if he moved.

He had none.

The dark water was still rising, soaking the edge of Matt's too large green school jacket. T.K. didn't notice. How could it be over? How could it end like this?

But it had.

Again, Patamon tried to urge T.K. to his feet, pleading, " T.K., we can't give up-" he cut himself off. Silence stretched outward._T.K's right. I couldn't beat Devimon before. I can't now. He beat me in about three seconds. What's left?_ Light caught in the little digimon's mind's eye, and he clung to it as though it were life itself. There had to be something, there just had to be-

"What about the dream?"

"What about it?" Asked T.K as he traced the image of a sun in the sand and watched as the water washed it away.

"Didn't the Digital Spirit Thing say-"

"Patamon, it said that- there was a chance that- that what I feared- that we might-." He was crying full out, hardly able to breathe. He trembled with the cold and numbness. An icy wind blew off the water, stinging his face.

"But-!"

"Just leave me alone!" T.K. cried, stumbling to his feet as if to run. He was too weak, too numb. He made it only a step, then crumbled in shallow water. "I'm sorry, Patamon. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just..."

He looked at his partner, light blue eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot. He swallowed against the lump in his throat, breathed against the knot in his chest, and spoke. "Don't you get it? It's over Patamon. There's nothing left. He killed them and we can't even fight him."

"Maybe... maybe we could. I..." Patamon said tonelessly. The Light in his mind faded, bit by bit, into dullness. He sank to the ground, crying.

"The Voice said if we fell into shadow- I don't know. But we did. We're here, and there's no way out and He won. It's Hopeless." The water swirled around him as he hugged Patamon, dark and cold and the very essence of despair.

Patamon repeated, "it's...over. It's Hopeless."

They wept.

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><p><strong>Um, yeah, Dark and grim and short. Now you see why I don't want to leave you From Hedgi's Head in a day or so to see my thoughts on this, and learn WHY it was so dark and grim. <strong>

**I would ask you to listen to the song used. It's the musical core of this story, just as this chapter was the core idea for this story. And, as always, Know this: as dark as this gets, I am a creature prone to happy endings. I Promise.**

**If you need something lighter and fluffier, the second chapter of No Knowledge of What Comes has been posted. **

**I would love to hear your thoughts on this chapter. We are so close to 100 reviews! I'd love to see it pass that mark. **

**Hedgi.**


	18. Solace

**Author's note: sorry this is a wee bit late. Um, Merry Christmas(if you celebrate it. If you don't, uh... happy belated any number of gift giving holidays that have already passed.) Yes, the last chapter was dark. And thank you all for reviewing. your reviews are really what keep me going, and keep me trying my best to tell the story right. I love you, my readers, for all your support this last year. To dx1118: a longer, fuller answer will be on the blog in a bit. For now I want to say this. Yes, there WILL be a happy ending. T.K. and Kari are 11. They are not, to my mind, old enough to be declaring undying love for each other. They do and can have crushes- and you will see what happens with that, spoilers! As for Ken: He is a part of this story but not *in* this story. He has his own story tried into this one, which I will write when this is done- it will be called "An Unseen Kindness." I hope that covers your questions.**

**Chrismahannukakwanzamon: Hedgi doesn't own Digimon. Not even a little bit. Probably for the best.**

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><p><em>May it be an evening star<em>

_Shines down upon you_

_May it be when darkness falls _

_our heart will be true_

_You walk a lonely road_

_Oh! How far you are from home _

_Darkness has come_

_Believe and you will find your way_

_Darkness has fallen_

_A Promise lives within you now._

_~ May it Be( entirely translated)_

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><p><em>Chapter 16: Solace.<em>

The dawn never came, though time must have passed. It felt like eternity as T.K. held Patamon and let the grey water numb him, hold him. But the sky above remained the same misty, stormy grey, lit from within with a sort of half light, only just enough to see by. It fit the 11 year old's mood perfectly. After a few minutes he stopped thinking, over and over, a broken record _It's Hopeless, it's Hopeless_ and started thinking, _Why, why, why? _Why had this happened? why hadn't the Digital Word Spirit done something? Why hadn't God? Why hadn't he himself been able to do something- leapt off the rock, use his Digivice- made it burn brighter, stronger? Why had this all happened?

He must have been asking aloud, for all he could not hear his own voice, because Patamon kept repeating, "I don't know, I don't know, Oh, Teekaay, I don't know."

His head ached from crying, and what wasn't numb now hurt from the battle- or from the heartache. He wasn't sure which caused his chest to feel stuffed full of rocks, his heart to pound so heavily, his breath to scrape this throat raw. His arms shook as he clung to his digimon. Patamon was cold, too cold. But there was no way to warm him, not in this icy water.

The need to help his last friend broke through the fog of T.K.'s mind, the fog of the Dark Ocean.

T.K. shifted, trying to stand up. The others were gone- but Patamon was shivering uncontrollably, and T.K. couldn't - _wouldn't - _ loose him.

It was hard to stand. His legs had fallen asleep and the cold water had chilled them so much that they hardly bore his weight. He did not move from the spot, just slowly, splashing in the rising waves, stood.

His knees buckled and he almost went down, but he steadied himself, throwing one arm out for balance, still clutching Patamon in the other arm. He stepped backwards. Again. He turned from the water that had soothed him, the water that had eased him, the water that had chilled his very soul. The sand was loose and cold, and the beach was steep, but he made it to where the world of the Dark Ocean turned into a _world_, not just a beach. He collapsed by the sandy side of the empty, grey road. Against the rim of pavement, he heard a _ clink _ of metal.

"What's that, who's there?" he asked, fear creeping into his voice, pushing back the despair ever so slightly. What if it was Devimon? What if it was the Shadow creatures that had tried to hurt Kari? _Oh, Kari!_

There was no answer. After a moment, Patamon whispered. " I..I don't think anyone's there. It's just us. We're alone." His high voice was mournful. T.K. hugged him closer. Though his heart wasn't in it, he tried to comfort his digimon. "We're not alone - we still have each other."

Patamon brightened, a bit. "I'm glad I'm with you, T.K. I just wish I wasn't so useless."

"You aren't! You've saved my- our lives. So many times."

"But not this time!"

Something- something Light sang in T.K.'s mind, only the faintest glimmer, but still. "I...it wasn't your fault, Patamon." This was what the others had tried to tell him when Patamon had first been deleted. This was what Kari had tried to tell him too.

It was only now, when he should have disbelieved it more than anything, that he understood.

"It's Devimon's fault. There wasn't anything we could have done." He said softly. It hurt to say. It hurt to believe, but at the same time...

He shifted to hug Patamon closer.

_Cli-ink._

It had been very close. T.K. noticed then what he hadn't seen on the journey, during the fight, while he sat in the Dark Ocean and wept. There was something in his pocket. He reached in, his fingers still icy. They touched something cold and metal, he grabbed it and pulled it out into the misty light.

It was Matt's harmonica.

T.K. would know the mouth harp anywhere- it was one of his earliest memories. He'd always know Matt's harmonica, and there it was, in his palm, smaller than he remembered, but unmistakable.

_Matt. _ With his brother's name there came a blaze of Light in T.K.'s mind.

"Matt," he said aloud.

Patamon fluttered his wings, strong enough to fly, now, and hovered, looking at the musical instrument. "Matt's harmonica, how did you...? Oh. Right. You're wearing his coat."

"Patamon, Matt and Cody. They aren't... aren't dead, he didn't- didn't kill them." he tripped over the words, not wanting to say "dead" or "killed." " They need us."

Patamon looked stricken that he hadn't been the one to remember - how could he have forgotten his friends?

T.K. stood up again, and Patamon hovered higher, level with his partner's face. T.K. was pale, a cut ran down one cheek, but his jaw was set, his eyes no longer lost. _We can't just stay here. Even if we can't defeat Devimon for good, we can do what we did before. And maybe that will be enough._ Now there was something to fight for, not just against. T.K. felt something warm inside his aching chest. Hope.

Patamon felt it too, like warm wind, like the sun rising- though in this dark place there was no sun- he beat his wings harder. "T.K." he said, almost formally. "I will fight him with you. Until death and beyond it."

T.K. smiled sadly. "I don't know if we can do this," he said, " but we have to try. For Matt and Cody. And for the others. We owe them that much - to fight him. I think - I hope - maybe we can. I'm not the Small One, but we can try."

Patamon grinned. All was not lost.

It was not entirely without Hope.

"But how do we get out of here?" the little digimon asked. "Last time- we had help."

T.K. bit his lip. "There must be a way out. We got here somehow. Maybe there's a TV in the city part, or something." He checked his pocket- he still had his Digivice and DTerminal. _Good. We'll need them._

He stood for a long moment, trying to decide what to do, trying to think. The Light in his mind shone through the fog, but darkness still clouded his thoughts, screaming at him that there was no point to any of this. _There is. There is a point. For Matt and Cody. For the Digital World._

Patamon flew, stronger now, high into the murky sky, looking for any sign of a portal like the one that had carried them back to earth only a few weeks earlier. There was non.

T.K stepped onto the road. "Better get going," he called up to Patamon. " We'll find a way out, there must be one."

_Click._

He looked down and something small glinted in the sand- something on a cord, which lay under his foot on the cracked pavement. He reached down and picked it up, brushing the cold, damp sand from it.

Pink enamel and gold glittered dimly in the half light of the eternal pre-dawn. The flower of the Crest of Light shone in his palm as though the sun itself was shining on it. T.K. almost dropped the pendant, then tightened his hold on it. "Kari!" he cried, looking around wildly. "Kari!"

If her crest was here- but no. _She lost it. She lost it weeks ago. When we fought Ken. _She had cried for it, and they'd even gone back and looked for it, but it had been gone. Kari was gone. But if- how had the Crest of Light, or the fake copy of it, come to be here, in this dark place?

"What is it?' Patamon asked, swooping down to see.

T.K. held it up. "Her Crest. Kari's Crest. It's here. I don't know how, but it's here. I thought- maybe...but-."

"But she lost it weeks ago," finished Patamon. "Oh. But then how did we get it?"

"Maybe it was - I don't know. The Digital Spirit...thingy. Or maybe," a thought occurred to the boy. "Maybe we're supposed to have it."

What did the Prophecy say- something about bright light, or-

"Bright power," T.K. said aloud. "The prophecy said something about...the Smallest's bright power, or using it. What if it meant the Crest?"

Patamon's eyes lit up. "Yeah! Maybe that's it. Maybe... maybe we can use it. Remember after Apocalypomon deleted us? Your Hope is for all of us, and Tai's Courage was all our courage and- Kari's Light was-"

"Ours. That means it's our power too." T.K.'s face broke into a grin. They had a real chance, then, if he could find a way to use the power of Kari's Crest - and maybe he could tap into his own. It had become harder, as though the power they held was being drained- Izzy had theorized about it, but never come up with anything solid.

_Izzy. What I wouldn't give for you to be here. You'd figure out how to- hack the Dark Ocean's code, or something. Or one of Tai's plans- or even Davis's. They always had good plans, even if they didn't always work. Or for Matt to just tell me it would be ok. Or Kari._

He wanted to cry again, and felt tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. _ now. We have to get out of here._

"Come on Patamon." T.K. still gripped the Crest. He had only taken a few steps when his digivice lit up. with his free hand he pulled it out and looked at it. Brilliant light poured from it, in thick gold beams. They formed a doorway, and through it T.K. and Patamon saw- in pale light, a rocky mountain path.

T.K. looked at Patamon. Patamon looked at T.K.

"Until death and beyond it." Patamon said again.

"And beyond it." T.K. repeated. "Thanks, Patamon."

Together they walked through the portal.

* * *

><p>The ground was steeply sloped, and T.K. was still quite cold - he stumbled on the suddenly uneven ground. "You okay?" asked Patamon. T.K. nodded, getting to his feet.<p>

The sun was rising in the east, just clearing the horizon. It tinged the cloud-spat sky a soft, pearly pink - T.K. had never seen a pink sky, but it seemed a good sign. The Sun was rising. Dawn had come. Hope filled his heart.

He began to walk, Patamon fluttering by his ear, up the path. The reached a bolder, and he recognized it. The flat space and Devimon's lair lay just beyond it. He took a breath. Fear made his knees tremble- but he walked forward.

He had expected Devimon to be waiting for him, but the large space was empty, desolate. The cave beyond it yawned, black as pitch, black as night. "Let's go." Patamon whispered. "maybe-" He did not dare voice the words- _Maybe they're ok. Maybe they're in there-_ But they both the digimon and his human partner- his human _friend- _were thinking them.

The sky above was lit with a fiery glow from over the trees- the sun had cleared the horizon and the clouds and sky were ablaze with rosy pink light- the very color of the enamel necklace T.K. still clutched. Kari's Crest felt warm in his hand, though it had been quite cold before.

T.K. was halfway to the cave when shadows began to snake from its mouth, like inky tendrils of a vine caught in the wind, they swayed. They circled. They took form. Devimon rose from the Shadows, robed in Darkness, his tattered wings unfurled, red eyes gleaming. He looked confused for a moment, then smiled.

"You returned, Human. Why? You cannot defeat me. I have already won."

T.K. shook, but steadied his voice. "Patamon, Digivolve!"

In one fluid motion he raised the hand that held his digivice- Light brighter than the sky streamed from it, enclosing Patamon.

**Patamon, Digivolve to... Angemon!**

Angemon stood, clothed in Light, his blue sash shinning, his helmet reflecting the dawn's warm colors. For a moment his hands were empty- then they were filled with his long, golden staff, which seemed to glow even brighter than the rest of him. He stood beside and slightly infront of T.K., ready to do what he had been made to do- fight Darkness. Protect his Human. Protect the Digital world.

Devimon laughed. "Angel, you think to fight me? You are weak. You cannot hope to win." He turned his glowing stare to T.K. "You have no chance, boy. Your Small One is dead."

T.K. could not hold back his tears at this final, terrible conformation. but he held his head high.

"I have fought you before, and I will fight you again. I will keep fighting you, forever if I have to."

"You will not have forever!"

"I'll fight you as long as I live and you will be defeated, even if the Digital world has to call new heroes to save it. I'm not the first- and I may be the last of my friends, but I won't be the last of the Digidestined."

"You are wrong! There will be no more. You are the Last and you are Alone and you are Powerless!" with this outburst came a lashing whip of Shadows- Angemon caught the blast with his staff, deflecting it.

"No, I'm not!" T.K. was shouting now, and crying too. "I may not be the Small One, I may not be the Smallest, but we will fight you anyway!"

Another blast of Darkness. Angemon lunged, striking Devimon- the demon digimon hissed and took one step backward, then lashed out, crying " Death Hand." His brown wrapped, rotted hand reached out, black fires filling it- Angemon countered with a blast of his own Light. Another attack from Devimon, this one aimed at T.K.

"Say goodbye, human. Too bad your little girlfriend isn't here to save you."

T.K. darted to the side, tripping and rolling. He got to one knee, raising his fist- the fist that still clenched Kari's lost-and-found Crest. He was bruised and dirty- the cut on his cheek bled lazily. His eyes were like Ice as he got to his feet. "I may not be the Small One." He said again. "Kari was. But you won't win." He did not shout, but his words carried with them power of their own. "We are not alone. We are not powerless!" He brandished the Crest of Light as the sun rose higher, it's light- it's Light- filling the shadowy mountain peaks. The sky was a brilliant shade of rose. "Kari may be gone, but I have her Light - the Bright Power."

Devimon's eyes widened, his smile faltered. Encouraged, T.K. went on.

"I may not be the Smallest, but I - we - WILL defeat you."

Angemon floated before T.K., seeming taller as the light shone down from the heavens.

"Prophecy or no." He said, his booming voice echoing across Infinity Mountain, filled with sorrow and anger and sheer power. "You will fall, Devimon. Our friends may not have been able to destroy you. But we are the Digimon and Child of Hope. We are the Sunrise, we are the Dawn that always comes, and now know this - we are the ones who will destroy you."

* * *

><p><strong>There! Please forgive any mistakes. Um, yeah. What did you think? *rocks back on heels expectantly.* See? I was nicer. It was less depressing and there was Hope an' stuff and the Sun's rising and the fight's gonna start, and T.K. and Pata-Ange-mon are epic and man that last part was really hard because it kept sounding cheesy ( of course that's in character for the show, heh) But I'm really happy with it. One thing: last week, the sky was really pink where I live. Like bright pink. It inspired me. And yay, Kari's crest! and yay hope!<strong>

**Again, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! The best possible gift you could give me is just a little(or long) review. Just say hi? I want to know how you like the chapter:) I love all your theories, and I love hearing from you. It always makes my whole day. We broke 100! Party! As a treat, I've posted my gran's recipe for spiced walnuts and my recipe for easy lava cakes on the blog.**

**Best wishes to you all and your families this season,**

**I'll see you in the new year!**

**Hedgi**


	19. Final Stand

**Author's Note.**

**Heheheh. Yeah, I'm... a bit late. Sorry? At least it wasn't a super evil cliffhanger? Anyway. Thanks for all your support. I'm all moved in to my apartment and am doing well, which is more than I can say for our characters.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, It means so, so, so much to me.**

**Disclaimer: Happy birthday to me, is that Digimon I see, wrapped up with a bow...oh, I'll take that as a no.**

* * *

><p><em>Here we are now, at the bitter end<em>

_holding on to loyalty and hope_

_we have courage friendship and love_

_a magic stronger than anything you have_

_Life is precarious_

_but that doesn't mean we can't have hope._

_~ Chapter 34_

_Don't close your eyes, I'm right beside you_

_ Don't be afraid, I'm never far_

_you and I were always meant to_

_Wake the dreamers from the dark..._

_~ I Will Believe_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 17: Final Stand<em>

T.K. stood as tall as he could, his whole body shaking with terror. He had felt stronger, more powerful than he had ever felt as he spoke, but now in the terrible stillness he found himself doubting his own words. What if it wasn't enough, to be willing to fight until he was killed? What if Kari's Crest wasn't enough, what if it wasn't enough to be the Sunrise, the Dawn, Digidestined? _ It will be._ He thought, willing his legs to stop quaking. _It will be._

Devimon laughed, a rough, grating noise that tore at T.K.'s heart. "Pitiful." he said, smirking. "You are "the dawn that always comes," how pathetic. You do not have any real power. I am the Lord of Night, the Night that swallows any light. You will have to be better than a sunrise to defeat me."

Dark cloud of black energy swirled from Devimon's horned head, a veil of darkness that domed over the mountain, and dimmed the sky, slowly but surely, until all T.K. could see above was a faintly glowing spot in the darkness that had to be the sun.

T.K. looked at Angemon, who nodded.

"You will not win, Devimon," the Angel said, raising his gleaming staff and letting light- and Light- pour from it, forming another dome of criss-crossed gold against the shadows. "Holy Rod!" Angemon swung his weapon, still shining with light. T.K. raised his digivice and let his power surge, a beam of light that struck on of Devimon's leather-wrapped, rotted hands.

Devimon hissed in pain, then drew forth more of his black fire, sending a ball of it hurtling at T.K.'s head- the boy threw himself down, ducking behind one of the smaller boulders.

"Make it easy on yourself and stay still!" Devimon shouted. T.K's response was to aim his digivice and will his strength into it - this time the golden light missed, striking Angemon's creation. The light flared, and while Angemon was unaffected, Devimon had to cover his eyes, his volley of attacks stopped for a moment. Angemon struck out with the staff, and it caught in one of the holes in Devimon's left wing - then with a great burst of light, tore it. Devimon howled with pain, sending a whip of dark energy across the gap- it slammed into T.K. and Angemon alike and they both screamed. Angemon turned his back to Devimon and lifted the boy to his feet. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Behind you!" T.K gasped as another slash of darkness flashed through the air. This time Angemon was ready, and he caught the attack, driving it back with one glowing, golden hand.

"Give up," Devimon said again. "You cannot hope to win."

"Never!" T.K. and Angemon were of one voice, one heart. Again, light shone from T.K.'s digivice, though it was taking a toll on him now. the shaking numbness in his legs was not entirely from cold and fear.

"Hand of Fate!" Angemon shouted, punching at the larger digimon's face. The blow connected for all Devimon's attempts at dodging. The golden light dome sparked, and the sparks drew themselves into Angemon and T.K., filling them with new strength. Fire blazed in T.K.'s heart and veins, and more light glimmered at the corner of his eyes as he searched for something to throw- there, a stone. He through the rock and it stuck Devimon full in the face. Devimon roared, " You will pay for that, Small one!"

There was a moment of complete stillness, complete silence. Angemon lowered his staff in confusion.

"What?" demanded T.K.

"Death Hand!" was Devimon's answer, and black fire streamed from his palms. Angemon spread his wings to shield T.K., then continued attacking with punches and with his staff.

"What did you mean!?" T.K. shouted, his voice shaking, his knees shaking- he was so tired, he wanted to fall to the ground- but no. He had to fight. He had to win, or the sacrifices that had been made would be for nothing. Kari had saved his life last time, and he had to honor that. He picked up another rock, took aim, but before he could throw it, Devimon answered.

"I mean," Devimon said as he loosed a bolt of black fire, one that slammed Angemon into a rock wall and left him stunned. "What I said. You will pay for the pain you have caused me and the time I have lost because of you, Smallest."

"But, but, I'm not, Kari-"

"The girl-child may have defeated my cousin in darkness, Myotismon, and she may have been the Light-Bringer, but I know my supposed destiny. There were to be Seven on the Island, on _my_ Island, not more. That was how it has always been foretold. You, timorous human child, were always the Small One. It suited my purposes for your "Kari" to believe herself Chosen."

T.K. felt as though he'd been punched in the gut. He dropped his stone.

"If you knew it was me, why not just kill me?" he asked, the same dark numbness that had overtaken him in the Dark Ocean creeping up his legs. "Why...why make me believe it was Kari?"

"Because, Small One, I suffered." Devimon paused, then in one quick motion raised his hands and fired a blast of energy. T.K. dove to the side, scraping his palms on the hard rock. "I watched you defeat my allies while I was trapped in the World Between. I would have defeated them myself in my own time, of course, but - did you think it was painless, being reborn from data not wholly deleted? I suffered. And so I wanted you to feel that pain. Why would I kill you first, Smallest? Why, when I could see you suffer, watch your friends vanish and die, one by one, why would I let you escape my vengeance? I wanted to destroy you- in soul as well as in body. And look! Now I have. You are weak, you are running out of strength, your Angel cannot save you, cannot hope to defeat me."

Devimon reached out with one hand and seized T.K. Angemon cried out and ran forward, but Devimon was at the mouth of his cave, and more darkness was leeching into him from the shadows. "You could not save them, and you will die knowing it is on your heart that they fell. It was always, will always be- all your fault." He threw T.K. like a rag doll- Angemon caught him in his warm, safe arms. Tears were streaming down T.K.'s face. "Now despair and die!" Devimon's hands were filled with a massive sphere of his power, T.K's hand found the chain he'd put around his neck, and he squeezed the Crest of Light.

Pink light flared, and golden light from his digivice. The lattice work of light that stretched above them expanded, absorbing the pink light like tiny crystals in golden lace.

"No." said T.K., filled now with more Hope and Light than he'd thought possible. Devimon was wrong. It was Devimon who'd hurt his friends. Devimon was the one who was to blame. Devimon laughed. "No? You think-"

"I think you should shut up!" Fury poured through T.K., light shimmered from the digivice and crest he clutched,.

"It is Hopeless!" Devimon jeered, aiming his globe of darkness.

"Angemon, now!" T.K. screamed.

The Angel digimon cast aside his staff and raised both hands heavenward, filling them with light. The dome of light against devimon's dark shield pulsed, then shone out with all the brilliance of the sun.

T.K. screamed as he forced his power- his soul, his very life- into the two gleaming objects that he held. Angemon threw his energy blast and it collided with Devimon's- there was an explosion louder than any T.k. had ever heard and in the silence after it he thought he'd gone deaf. Again Devimon screamed, "Death Hand!" and again Angemon countered with "Hand of Fate!" and again the world shook.

_It's not enough,_T.K. realized. He brought up the Digivice, holding it high overhead. "Angemon, you have to Digivolve!"

Golden-white light, warm on T.K.'s face, surrounded the digimon, became a part of him.

**Angemon, Digivolve to...MagnaAngemon!**

"NO!" Devimon screeched, and moved to attack again.

This time Devimon drew away the edges of the black shield, so that light crept through from the bottom- he consumed the darkness and created his largest blast yet, a ball of energy that could encompass both human and and angel.

_For Kari. For Tai and Joe and Sora, for Izzy, Davis, Yolei, for Matt and Cody, for Mimi. For Kari. For everybody. Make this count. _T.K thought, as Light glittered in his mind and the Voice echoed in his head- _Hope Child_.

MagnaAngemon, too, filled his hands with Light, drawing on the lacework that now blazed with colors- red, orange, pale green, dark blue, silver, bright purple and most of all the rose-pink and sun- gold.

Sweat poured down T.K's face and mingled with the dampness from the Ocean spray and his tears.

Devimon let fly his power, grinning widely.

MagnaAngemon loosed his own attack.

T.K. forced all his remaining strength into Crest and Digivice, pain exploding in his head. The light that shone forth was the brightest he had ever seen, so bright he had to close his eyes and still his eyelids were read with the brightness of it all.

This explosion, of Light and Darkness, was the loudest yet. Sparks of light and particles of darkness flew everywhere, obscuring vision as T.K. felt himself sliding into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>When T.K. opened his eyes, it was only just past dawn. The sky was still a pinkish color, but had faded mostly into blue.<p>

"Patamon?" he asked immediately, looking around for his companion. If Patamon had been destroyed, too, he didn't think he could bear it. There was no orange and white striped egg waiting in the crater that had formed when the two blasts, of Light and Dark, had met, nor was the little guinea pig like digimon hovering by T.K.'s side.

Instead, at the bottom of the blackened pit, lay something small and pink. T.K. scrambled down the side of the hole and scooped Tokomon into his arms. "Tokomon, Tokomon, are you ok?"

"Hmm?" the little digimon opened wide, dark eyes, then yawned, showing many sharp teeth. "Did we win?"

"Yes." T.K. still felt very weak, but with the word he felt as through a world had been lifted from his shoulders. "Yes. It's over."

"Good. I'm hungry."

T.K. laughed- how strange it felt to laugh!

"I think we should get you some food, then. And-."

Darkness flooded his mind. They would go home. How could he face _anyone _ without his friends at his side?

"I want to go in there first." Tokomon said, pointing a stubby paw at the cave's mouth, now illuminated by sunlight. "I just have a feeling."

And strangely, so did T.K. He could not hear the Voice singing in his mind, it was as though the Voice had vanished when he'd gone into the dark Ocean- but he could almost feel- Hope. Not just in victory, but hope that-

"OK." Carefully, T.K. crawled out of the crater, not wanting to hurt himself worse. The cut on his cheek was no longer bleeding, and though he felt bruised, he didn't think anything was broken. He winced as his scraped and raw hand met stone, but soon he was standing before the cave entrance. He walked in. The cave was still dark, even with the early morning sun, and the dark seemed to try to fill him up.

There, just as Captain Koromon had said, a gear stood in one wall. With a pang, T.K. realized he'd forgotten about the members of Mimi's army that had joined him. What had become of them?

There was something on the floor ahead of him- he bent to see what it was. A digivice. Several digivices and D Terminals. They lay near the wall, and he picked one up. Davis's, even in the dim light he could make out the color.

Tokomon was sniffing hard. "T.K., T.K., behind here! It smells like them!"

T.K. reached the Gear and pounded on the wall next to it. "Hello?" This was it. He hardly dared hope- but what if..?

"T.K.?!"

That was not Tokomon.

"Tai!" T.K. could have wept for joy.

"It's T.K.!" Davis's voice.

"They're here!" Yolei's.

"T.K.! Thank goodness!" Mimi's.

"Are you guys ok?" Sora's.

"You need to destroy this Gear. We don't know where the Digimon are, but we have to find them and get out of here. Izzy's unconscious." That was Joe, urgent.

T.K. lifted his digivice. He swayed a bit, then steadied himself. One hand wrapped around the crest, which he took off to give to Kari. Light. The Gear shattered.

There was light from within the room, flashlight beams, and T.K. raced in, Tokomon on his heels, to embrace Tai, and then everyone was laughing and crying and hugging each other- all but Sora who stayed seated, and Izzy, who lay on the ground.

In the happy chaos, T.K. led them into the main room, Tai supporting the limping Sora; Mimi and Joe holding Izzy. In the semi-darkness, faces were blurs of light as they bent down to retrieve their digivices.

"You're alive! You're alive!" T.K. was overcome - he had been so certain, in the Darkness, but they were _alive_.

"Hey, look!" came Mimi's voice. "Another Gear!" She leveled her digivice at it and blasted the Gear to smithereens. "That was unbelievably satisfying," she said happily.

There were, in the single still-on flashlight beam, the digimon, unconscious or stunned, which ever, but they were there- even the members of Mimi's army.

This time, T.K. did cry, though until they reached sunlight, none noticed.

They spilled out of the cave, looking around at the devastation with wonder.

"You did that?" Davis asked, slapping T.K. on the back. "Nice!"

T.K. flinched, then looked from face to face. "Where's Kari? Was she hurt?"

Tai's tan face paled.

"What do you mean? She was with you, she - I thought she'd stayed behind, I - no. No."

Sora leaned against a rock, clearly in pain, as Tai ran a hand through his hair. He was shaking.

"What happened?" he asked, not looking at T.K., not looking at anyone except for Agumon, who was so strangely still, but breathing. The older boy trembled, breathing hard.

Everyone looked at T.K.

"She's not dead." He said, clearing his throat, and what was more, he Knew it. It was almost as though- but that was silly- it was only an image of her face, not the Voice. But the Crest had glowed- that had to mean something. Even if the Crests had been for everyone, it had not been another's hope that had made his glow. And despite the crushing despair he had felt in the Dark Ocean, he Knew. Kari was ok. She was somewhere safe. She had to be. _Please, God, Digital world Light thing, please. Let Kari be ok._ Warmth spread through him, a reassurance, a hope.

"She saved my life. She distracted Devimon. I don't know- I don't know what happened after that. I thought he'd captured her. He said you all were dead. But I think- I feel-"

Tai nodded. "I feel it, too." There was a pained look in his eye, and something else, as if he wanted to take T.K. by the shoulders and scream, 'you promised to look after her!' T.K. was expecting something like that. But the rage never came.

"We have to find her!" Davis said quickly. everyone nodded.

"The digimon," Sora said softly, drawing her digivice. "We can't carry them to the nearest computer, that's miles from here, and Izzy, and, well, me...we won't be any good to you."

Joe opened his mouth to speak, then closed it as everyone held out their digivices and willed them, _glow._

The light was brief and bright, nothing like the battle-light, the bright power. T.K. almost was glad of that- but.

"Nothing," Yolei said angrily, staring at Hawkmon with tears in her eyes.

"Again, " Davis declared, forcing more power into his digivice, and again the light, tinged with all the colors of the rainbow save pink, flared.

This time, Biyomon's wing twitched. Veemon opened his eyes.

"Did anyone get tha number of tha bus tha hit me?"

Davis couldn't help but laugh as he gathered his partner in a huge embrace. "Not quite a bus, buddy, but close enough."

Mimi bent to hug Palmon, and her Army members gathered around her.

"Mimi, Mimi" Yokomon squeaked. "I'm so glad you are safe and well."

Mimi nodded, brushing away tears. "I can't believe you came and fought Devimon for me."

"Well, we tried." the Snobotamon said. "But.."

"Little Koromon..." Captain Koromon said. "She was so brave. And I know she'll be reborn, but, Oh Princess Mimi, I lost her."

Mimi gathered her army close, whispering words of comfort and holding her small captain.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Slowly the other digimon began to stir and wake, shaking their heads, wings, tails, paws. They, with some small strength, clung to their human friends, apologizing for not being strong enough and simply being held close and thanked. Tai scolded Agumon for blaming himself, while Joe was treated to Gomamon-as-a-puppy and was given a lick on the cheek.

"Fish breath, Gomamon. Not the face!" but he was laughing.

After a moment, he sobered. Sora was sweating, and her good leg was shaking under her weight. And Izzy was unconscious- dehydrated and malnourished from his two day plus captivity.

"I don't want to break up this party, but we _have_ to get to a hospital. Sora, that leg is going to give out on you soon, and Izzy's in bad shape. Is anyone strong enough to digivolve?" He asked, looking from digimon to digimon.

"Whatever Devimon did to us, I'm weak as a kitten." Agumon said. "No offense Gato- oh." His face fell.

Tai put a hand on the digimon's shoulder " We'll find them, but Joe's right. We need to get Sora and Izzy to a hospital."

"If you want to start looking," Joe said. "I think we can manage-"

"No. Once you're at the hospital, I will. Just in case some of those Gears are still active, though-"

The digimon began to whisper, then Hawkmon stepped forward. "I regret to say that none of us have very much strength at the moment. I doubt I can even fly."

"So we walk," sighed Yolei."Ok. Let's get moving, fast."

Tai moved closer to Sora, letting her use him as a living crutch, and Joe handed off his shoulder bag to Mimi- it was promptly filled with small digimon. The tall boy then, with a groan and something that sounded like, "Lay off the choco-bars, Iz" lifted his unconscious friend over his shoulders. He took one labored step, then another. "I've never done this in real life." He said, "but it's the safest way. Let's go."

As one, they found the path down the mountain and began to descend.

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><p><strong>Oh my gosh. I wrote that all in an afternoon. I've been busy with classes, but I said I'd have a chapter for you last week and I felt bad. Um, yeah. So... what did you think? A lot happened. What did you like? What did you not like? Was the battle any good? Did I make Tai too understanding and calm? I think I did. um, yeah. so right now I'm thinking, Oh gosh, this is terrible. So if you disagree, please let me know, or else I might have to do a massive edit.<strong>

**That said, two last things- one, this story is almost over. I'll try to update in two weeks, and then again two weeks from then, and that's it. I'm really sad to see this story end.**

**second thing: Birthdays! It's (almost) my birthday, and the best gift you can give is a review. Please and thank you. It was also this fic's birthday last week- making this not only my longest writing project by word count, but by date. I can't believe it! We've come so far since I first started ACL 2 and a half years ago. I can't thank you all enough, wether you've been their from the beginning or are new today.**

**Hedgi.**


	20. Sorrow and Glory

**Author's Note: Almost to the end! This is a shorter chapter, just be warned. Everything's wrapping up. I really don't have much to say up here. Sorry for not responding to reviews the last few times. Please know how grateful I am for all your words. I had a fantastic birthday.**

**Thank you again to everyone who's been reading. It means a lot.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine.**

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><p><em>Hope is a river <em>

_that flows from these stone walls..._

_A fiddle tune I heard _

_that has no words_

_Hope is the one thing _

_we have never lost_

_Though we are tired _

_from the old war _

_~River._

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><p><em>Chapter 18: Sorrow and Glory<em>

"Let's go." Joe said, hunched under Izzy's weight. Moving slowly, with Gomamon beside him, he started down the trail. The others fell in, Tai and Yolei helping to support Sora as she limped along. Davis soon took the lead, holding the exhausted Veemon in his arms. He moved as quickly as he could, eager to reach the portal, get the injured to help, so that he could come back and look for Kari.

_She's gotta be ok._ He thought. _I should have protected her. T.Q. should have protected her._ He grimaced at the thought. No, that was unkind. T.K. had protected Kari, more than he ever had. He looked over at his rival and friend. T.K. had a cut along on cheek, already healing, and tear tracks down his face.

_He thought we were dead._ Davis remembered. The thought chilled him. He had been terrified (not that he'd tell anyone) in Devimon's cave, but at least he'd had most of his friends. _Wait._

"Where's Cody?" he asked, looking at T.K. How had he not noticed that Cody wasn't there? Sure, he didn't say much, but he was part of their team- their family. The others paused to listen. They, too, wondered.

"Is he ok?" Yolei asked, furious at herself for not noticing one of her best friend's absence.

T.K.'s face fell. "He got hit. By the Gears. He's at the hospital, with Matt." Pause. Pant. The trail wasn't steep, and they were headed down hill, but it was long and strewn with rubble rock they had to scramble to avoid. "I think... now that w're all," he stopped. "Almost all together, we might be able to- I don't know. Save them. It's a long shot, but..."

Davis nodded, skidding on some pebbles. "We've taken longer. I think it's part of the job description," he said, remembering what Joe had said about the universe hating them. That reminded him- " Like when you fought VenomMyotismon, that thing with the arrows."

Togomon nodded in agreement from his perch in the crook of T.K.'s arm.

"Yeah, like that- wait, how did you know about that?" T.K. asked.

"While you were out there being a hero, I finally got some answers." Davis grinned. "Ya know... you're pretty cool, T.K."

_Did he just get my name right?_ T.K. couldn't help but think- _I should save the day more often._

But he hadn't saved the day alone.

_Kari, where are you?_ He wondered. Lost in the longing, he walked into a small, dead tree. Togomon squeaked in protest, and Yolei giggled.

"T.K, trees are for perching, not for walking." Hawkmon teased. T.K. blushed and looked down the path. Something glinted there.

Mimi reached it first, and bent down. Her face went pale, and she held it up.

"What is it?" Sora asked from the rear of the company, still supported by Tai and Yolei.

"It's Kari's Digivice!" Palmon answered, looking up at the pink device. Her leaves drooped slightly, and the flower on her head looked slightly wilted, but- T.K. could not get over it- she was safe. They all were. All but- no. Matt and cody would be fine. Kari would be fine. They had gone through too much for it to be anything else.

The group circled in the middle of the path, though it was so narrow that Sora was able to release her human crutches and lean on the reddish rock wall, and Joe felt far too close to the edge. With great care, he knelt and shrugged Izzy off his shoulders. It felt as though the world had been lifted from them. When he muttered as much to Gomamon, still playing the cuddly puppy ( though he had refrained from tripping Joe so far) the seal looked at him quizzically. " You always have the world on your shoulders. I heard Jim say so."

"He wasn't being literal, fish breath." Joe said with a small smile, rolling his shoulders.

Gomamon pouted, but after a heartbeat burst into laughter.

Tai took the digivice from Mimi's hand. Its screen was unmarked, not scuffed or scraped, there was no sign that it had been- blasted, or attacked, or hurt at all, but for a tiny dent in the bottom.

Tai put the device in his pocket.

"What does this mean?" Yolei wondered. "How did she lose it?"

"Could she be close by?" asked Davis. "Hey, Kari? KARI! GATOMON!" he called.

After a moment the others joined in, but the only sound was of their own voices, and a snoring Yokomon in Joe's survival bag.

"Once we get you to safety, I'll come back. I'll find her." Tai said to the others.

"We'll." Agumon corrected, and Tai nodded

"Tai?" Mimi said sweetly. "Like heck you are ditching us. Sora and Izzy need a hospital, but I've got two feet and the blisters to prove it. With my army," she smiled at that, "We'll find her in no time. In fact- can I borrow someone's DTerminal? I'll get the Snobotamon and the other Koromon and Yokomon on it, they're closest."

Several DTerminals were thrust at her at once. She took T.K.'s and started to type. Sora lowered herself until she was sitting, her bad leg stretched out. The new bandage was starting to look pink, but not as bad as the previous one.

"I'm coming, too." Davis said. Veemon squirmed, and Davis was glad to let his digimon down from his shoulders.

"Me too," the blue digimon said.

"You're heavy. You're walking." Davis looked down at his digimon. Veemon didn't seem to mind.

"We're all coming with you, Tai." Togomon said, "Except for Sora and Izzy."

"And I'll coordinate." Sora smiled wanly. "And Biyomon can go with you."

Biyomon nodded.

After a moment Tai said simply, "Thank you."

"Let's keep going. The sooner we get Izzy medical attention, the better." Joe picked up his shorter friend again.

This time, T.K. helped support Sora, and tai took the lead, scanning the path for any sign of his sister.

The Digidestined of Courage had been afraid when he had been a captive. He had been afraid when his friends were hurt, when Izzy wouldn't wake up. He was afraid now._I failed her. She's out there, alone, and I should be with her._ He thought. _What kind of big brother am I?_

His own voice answered silently, _a leader. Kari's OK. I don't know how I know, but... she's got to be ok._

Meanwhile, T.K. was thinking many of the same thoughts as he helped Sora along. It was slow going- a step, pause, wait for Sora to take a hop- bracing himself, step. Togomon sat on his shoulder, front paws resting on his ear.

_Voice, _he thought. _Tell me where she is. Tell me if she's OK. Please._

But there was no music in his mind, no chime or glitter of light, no Light behind his eyes. his free hand found Kari's crest in his pocket. What if she wasn't OK? No. Her Digivice was unharmed. She had to be fine, they'd find her, and she'd be fine, and he could tell her. Tell her what she meant to him.

The thought startled him. He cared about her, more than friendship, beyond friendship. And loosing her- almost loosing her- had reminded him. It wasn't a matter of just keeping a Promise to Tai, to Sora. He wanted to protect her. Wanted to be with her, against every danger. Maybe it was silly. _I'm only eleven. but..._

Step, pause, step, pause.

_Hope Child._ A different Voice, but the same. It was not the Light, but it was- just...the music was different. Fainter. Fading. _Love._ And the Voice was gone.

T.K. shook his head, almost dislodging Togomon. _Kari, Cody, Matt._ He'd stopped Devimon, but what if it wasn't enough?

Sora spoke up, as if she could read his mind. "Thank you. You've really grown up. you saved all of us. I'm proud of you, and... I know Matt will be

"Almost to the forest!" Davis crowed, looking ahead. The path was leveling out, and ahead was the thickening trees.

As they entered the sun dappled wood, the going got, if anything, even slower. Twigs, not small rocks, littered the path, as did low hanging branches. Joe was careful to make sure Izzy didn't fall.

Davis took over Yolei's place as Human Crutch, while Yolei consulted the printouts of Izzy's man from Joe's bag.

"This way. I think." She said, pointing to a trail that branched off.

Just then there came a rustling noise, and in the dimness, Davis made out movement.

"It's something big," he hissed, drawing his digivice.

They drew together, watching the shadows carefully.

Something stepped out, onto the path ahead of them. And a voice.

"Hi."

"Kari!" Tai was the first to embrace his sister, and then she was mobbed as everyone, digimon and human cheered and, in some cases, wept again.

T.K. felt like he had cried a river, but didn't care, as he hugged her. It was a knot of joyous chaos, and clamoring- "What happened?" , "Kari, we were so worried!", "You're ok!"

And Kari was crying too, as she rejoiced that her friends were alive, were safe, were whole. She was covered with scrapes, her sleeves were tattered and dirty, her face was smudged, her backpack was stained, but she was almost glowing with happiness.

_She's beautiful._ Thought T.K. as he grinned so wide he thought his face might split in half.

"Where's Gatomon?" asked Togemon, peering around for the white cat.

Kari turned, stepped back into the shadows- she was limping slightly- and emerged with something in her hands.

"No." Agumon let out a little cry.

It was an egg, pale pink with circles of darker pink patterned on it.

"What happened?" Tai asked, more urgently, reaching out a hand to Kari.

Kari blotted at her eyes. "She'll be ok." her eyes found T.K.'s. "She'll be back." T.K. nodded, thinking of Angemon, and his own egg.

" I... We... After we got separated, me and T.K, Devimon attacked. Angewomon took the blow. I... suddenly there was all this.. power in me. I wanted to fight. And there was so much light- I.. I don't really know what happened next. I must have blacked out, but I think- I was flying. Then I woke up, and found Primary village. I don't know how I survived. I think.. I think it was the Voice, the Digital world Spirit. I was going to try and get back to the mountain- I couldn't go home without my digivice, and I had to know, if you were all ok." She looked at each of them in turn. "You're ok." Her chin wobbled, and she smiled again, a trembling smile. "You're really ok. I was so afraid." Her eyes fell on Izzy, whom Joe had set down on the edge of the path.

"Izzy! What happened?"

"He's dehydrated. We've got to keep moving." Joe said as he picked up his burden again. "How much longer to the TV?" he asked Yolei.

Kari stopped yolei. "I have a laptop." she said, then blushed. "Sorry, Tai." She shifted her backpack onto one shoulder, and Davis reached into it to produce the black laptop.

"My laptop?" Tai asked, not really caring. His sister was safe!

"Let's go." Sora said. She was leaning against a tree now, her wounded leg raised."I'm not sure I can stand much longer."

Yolei opened the screen- "The hospital?" she asked. "We might get seen, but...?"

Joe shrugged. "It's a risk we'll take. Come on."

He was the first to disappear into the light, Izzy on his back.

Sora went next, and then everyone indicated Kari. She looked into the trees where she had come, then around at her friends and smiled again. With a nod, she entered the Portal.

T.K. followed. Warmth shone through him as he returned Home.

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><p><strong>So... yeah.<strong>

**There will be one more chapter after this one. Sorry again that it was so short, but some very important stuff happened!**

**for those worried that Kari was found to quickly, to easily, know that in reality it was not so quick or easy. that story will be told later, in An Unseen Kindness. Just wait. :)**

**So. What did you like? any favorite lines? a favorite section? Did I do a good job keeping all the Digimon in there? I hope so.**

**Have a great weekend, folks. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time in the very last chapter!**


	21. Rivers Flow

**This is it. The Last Chapter. What a journey it has been. I want to thank all of you for reading.**

**Thanks to (long list, oh my gosh!)**

_ChibiDarkGirl, DCLWLOKPR44424, DigiDespairheart,Digifan23, Digigirl1995, Dunk234,DracoFighter, DragonWolfStar, ElephantMexx, Evenstar606, Fanatic28, GardeniaPearl, Genun, Houndmon, Irockandyouknowit , Kyamato666, Lovelinelivelong639, MitzvahRose, Penbrook525, ShikamaruNaraKibaNaruChunin, StraightedgeWingZero, SullyWullybunny, We May Perish in Flame, akinos, bc1922, canuck72, crestoflight3, digimonfan18, merryb, natsumefruit, plutomoon2, quickwolf, sktrgrl13, Jmeb0430, KHLostEmpress, Kyra Adelaide, Merriot, Mimi522, NightRain1077, Valechan92, devilwanab, epafrtx003, Kariyugi, plutomoon2, sunbrigate, sunlightsnow, tikitay,WildCroconaw, Lilfoc, Digidestined Ninja of Sunshine, dx1118, guest, Xanpluto, Passing Through, LilianaF, Jo, BriBri, DarkCh03, Ultimate black Ace, Natsumefruit, and Spoddedleaves1_ **For reviewing, following, and/or favoriting. You have made this such a wonderful experience for me- when I was at my lowest points, you were all so kind. I am glad that you have loved this story as I have. I hope you will all let me know if this chapter measures up!**

**I would like to dedicate this chapter- and this whole story, to CrestofLight3. You have been here since the beginning, and I love reading the comments you leave, always so thoughtful and wonderful. They make me feel so happy. So, thank you to you especially.**

**But onward.**

**Disclaimer: by now you know as well as I- I don't own digimon.**

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><p><em> Hope is a river that flows from these stone walls...<em>

_A fiddle tune I heard that has no words_

_Hope is the one thing we have never lost_

_Though we are tired from the old war _

_~River_

_And if the river should ever run dry_

_Somewhere the rain will still fall_

_Will still fall from the sky._

_~Rivers Run_

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><p><em>Chapter 19 Epilogue: Rivers Flow_

Jim was speaking to the newly admitted Cody's mother and grandfather when he noticed, in the corner of his eye, Ms. Takaishi's computer screen started to glow.

Jim wasn't very involved in his younger brother's life, being a very busy first year doctor- but he knew some things. And one of those was that most of the parents of the other Digidestined either didn't know, or didn't approve. Not good.

T.K.'s mother thought fast. "Mrs. Hida? Mr. Hida? Why don't you join me and Matt's father for breakfast. Sitting here..." the smile she had put on faltered. "It looks like you could do with some tea?"

The Hidas looked to Jim, who nodded hurriedly. They left- and not a moment to soon- from the computer came Joe, with another boy- Jim recognized him, it was Izzy- draped across his shoulders.

"Jim," Joe panted. "I'm so glad it's you in here." He staggered to one side, and jim rushed to help settle the unconscious boy in a chair.

"What happened?" the older brother asked, looking around as a redheaded girl stumbled onto the floor- Joe helped her hobble over to another chair.

"Izzy's been unconscious for the last hour, he's dehydrated, and Sora's leg might need stitches, I wasn't sure-"

Jim darted into the hall, calling over his shoulder that he'd get an IV.

Soon, everyone but the digimon were in the crowded, two bed room. Cody lay on one bed, the curtain separating him from Matt drawn back. Morning light shone on both their peaceful, sleeping faces, and monitors of different types beeped softly. Kari looked around, still holding Gatomon's Digiegg. Only Tokomon had accompanied them to the hospital- the rest of the digimon had gone to wait at Izzy's apartment, and Sora's, to tell the parents that were aware of the Digital world what had happened. They had all wanted to come, but had agreed that all of them together appearing in the hospital might blow what little cover they had left.

They stood in silence, not sure how to start, when Jim returned, pulling an IV. As he worked, he asked again. "What happened? T.K., your parents were going crazy. Where were you all? Mom and Dad called, Joe, I said you were here, they bought it, but- and then your friend just shows up out of nowhere!"

"We couldn't think of anything else to do." Kari said quietly.

Jim sighed. "We called his family. Said that he'd been visiting and had fallen asleep in the waiting room, we didn't know he wasn't here with family, and that he got up and then collapsed." He looked at T.K. "Your mother is a great story teller, by the way. She almost had me convinced." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a stick of smelling salts. Slowly, Izzy opened his eyes, and blinked hazily.

"Izzy!" Mimi cried, beaming. "You're ok!"

"Wha? Where...how..?"

"T.K. beat Devimon." Joe explained. Jim looked confused. "You're in the hospital. You passed out."

Izzy nodded. "Everyone?"

"Everyone." Tai confirmed, his heart swelling. He looked over at his travel-stained sister. "We're all here. Well, the digimon went to tell your parents. But we all made it."

Izzy smiled, then turned to look at T.K. "You did it."

T.K. looked down at Tokomon, blushing slightly.

Davis reached into his pocket and pulled out Izzy's Digivice, then handed it, almost reverently, to the older boy.

"I think we should try," he said. "You know, while it's just us."

T.K. looked around.

"Jim, where are my parents and the Hida's?"

"They saw the computer- the portal thing- and convinced the Hidas to eat breakfast with them. Upamon- that's his name, right?" Jim pointed to the lump under the cover that seemed to be snoring. "Said that they don't know about the Digital World."

"That's right." Yolei said. Her face fell. "I'm so grounded."

"Guys," Davis said impatiently. He held up his digivice.

Mimi dug hers out of Joe's pack, which she still wore over one shoulder. the other Digidestined followed suit, until they formed a lopsided circle around their friends, holding out the small, differently colored devices.

"On three." Sora said. "One."

"Two." put in Izzy

"Three," T.K. said as he willed the digivice to glow.

Light, faint in the thick beams of sunlight, filled the room. Jim looked on in awe, Upamon and Tsunomon, both deep sleepers, woke and emerged from their burrows to see all the fuss. They rejoiced to see their fiends, but dared not distract them. After a long moment, the light flickered, and faltered, and died out.

"Well?" Tokomon asked, as the others held their breaths and prayed, _"Please, let us have this miracle, please, please, let it have worked!_

The machines beeped steadily. Matt and Cody continued to breathe shallowly, eyes closed. It hadn't worked.

"Again, you have to try again!" Upamon squeaked, looking from face to face.

Tai nodded, looked around at everyone. "ready?" he asked, his voice trembling. What if this didn't work? It had to work- they'd beat Devimon, they had, it had to work! He closed his eyes and let his own energy flow through the device. _"Glow, you stupid thing, glow! brighter! More!" _He thought.

Again, the light was bright but again, it wasn't enough. Neither Matt nor Cody stirred. Yolei put her head in her hands. Him looked around. "Is there anything I can do? Please, tell me, what do you need, what is it about these..."

"Digivices." Sora said. She still sat in her hard plastic chair, looking as though she were about to cry.

Izzy shook his head. "They're keyed to us, to Digidestined. Even if there was an extra. And I don't know how they work. I've been trying to figure that out since I got mine."

Jim sighed. "It's just- I became a doctor so I could help people."

T.K. went to the small table, and found Matt's digivice, under a few purple petals from the wisteria in the vase beside it. Carefully, he opened Matt's hand and put the digivice in it. Upamon bounced down and found Cody's digivice beside the boy's keys in his jacket pocket, piled on the floor. A minute later, Cody's digivice was in his hand.

_"Please let this work," _Went up a silent prayer from all gathered.

This time, they forced all they had into the Light.

Tai pushed with all his might, willing his own strength into the light- "_Come on, work, work, work!" _He thought, thinking of Matt, his best friend, of Cody, who looked up to him- they had to wake up, they just had to.

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><p>Sora was crying- her leg <em>hurt <em>but this was more important. she was glad to be sitting as she breathed as deeply as she could, throwing herself in mind and soul into the light. "_Wake up, Matt. You saved me from the Dark. I'm trying to do the same, reach me, please, please, please-"_

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><p>Davis was exhausted. His throat was dry, his feet ached, his hands were scraped and bruised from where he'd pounded on the walls of their prison. With each heartbeat his body throbbed, but he focused as best he could- he could not be distracted, not if this was going to work. Cody, Matt, they were like Family, even if he wasn't as close to them as he was to other members of his team. "<em>I promise I'll be nice to Jun forever. I'll never complain about math homework. Anything.<em>" He wished so badly that he was close to them. He'd spent so much time being jealous of the bond that T.K. and Kari shared, and shared with the other kids, that he hadn't even tried to build it for himself. "_I'll be the best friend anyone could ask for. Just fix this, whoever's listening."_

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><p>Mimi reached out one hand to Joe, who took it. With their free hands they let light pour from their digivices- it swirled up into the air and filled the room, growing brighter and brighter as they squeezed each other's hands and hoped desperately- "<em>Third time's the charm." <em>Joe's mind filled with memories of fighting Bakemon, and so in his mind he chanted- "_Black Gears, lose your power. Black Gears, lose your power. Any time now. Black Gears lose your power."_

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><p>Yolei looked at Cody, wanting to cry. They'd been friends since he could crawl, the best of friends. She'd gone to his kendo matches, and he'd cheered her on for the three years she'd been on the swim team. When his father had died, he'd spent hours in her apartment, and they'd just sat together. He had to get better. He was her best friend, even if he was three years younger than her.<em> "Cody, If we'd all been more careful, like you...Stop it Yolei. He's going to be fine. T.K.'s plan will work. The Digivices work. Please. <em>

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><p>Logic and emotion warred in Izzy's mind. He knew the power of the Digivices- but they'd tried before, when Matt had first been hit, and nothing had happened. True, Mimi was here now, but Cody was down. It was true that the older digivices were stronger, better equipped for this kind of thing, but still. It might not be enough. What would they do then? His head ached, his arm stung where the IV entered it, his legs still shook. But he concentrated, trying to put aside his fear and just let the light spill through his fingers.<p>

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><p>Kari held Gatomon's Digiegg in one arm, clinging to it. Gatomon would be ok. Cody would be ok. Matt would be ok. There had been so many miracles already. Her life was full of miracles, big and small. She should have been dead, a dozen times over, but she was still breathing, her friends were still breathing. "<em>Light,"<em> she thought, "_Help us. Spirit of the Digital world, HELP THEM. We did what you wanted. T.K. beat him. we have fought everything that threatens the Digital world. We've lost- We've lost so many._ She remembered the Numamon, Whamon, Piximon, Chumon...Wizardmon._"Please, no more! There's peace now, for as long as it lasts. Please."_

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><p>T.K.'s arm shook as he aimed his Digivice at his brother. He had used so much energy in the last 24 hours. Tokomon leaned into his chest, their heartbeats coming to quickly. T.K. was breathing hard , forcing all his energy, everything he had, into the thick bream of light. He tried to slow his heart, his breath, to be calm, but he couldn't. He saw the light, tinged with the colors of the crests, surrounding Matt and Cody in thick beams- just like...<p>

_"The dome." _ He thought, not daring to speak, not wanting to distract anyone. His muscles shook, he was straining so hard, but still - what if it wasn't enough? "_the crest. I should have given it back to Kari. But if I made it glow before...?" _ More light, he noticed, was spilling from his pocket, a faint pink. T.K. couldn't help a small smile. Hope filled his heart- the Light filled him up, even though he felt like his legs were jelly.

Around him, the light started to die out. "No." he said, but he was so weak. He slumped into a chair, still focusing, but the his digivice, all the digivices, had stopped glowing.

The light remained.

It covered the hospital beds in a lacework dome, all the colors of the rainbow but most of all a thick, bright white that hurt his eyes.

"It's beautiful" Yolei whispered, tears in her eyes.

Suddenly Kari gave a cry. In her arms, the pink and paler pink egg gave a shudder, then burst, light flooding the room. The Light dome flared, then vanished- and behind them came a click.

Kari whirled, her digimon in her arms, soft as velvet. In the doorway stood-

"Mom?"

Ms. Takaishi started to cry. T.K. felt what must have been his millionth and millionth and first tears of the day welling in his eyes, then spilling over. they dripped onto Tokomon, but the little pink digimon didn't care, he was smiling, all his pointed teeth showing.

Around him came the sound of cheers, laughter, joy. Mr. Ishida joined his ex-wife in the doorway, saw her hand pressed to her mouth, unable to contain her emotions. He looked into the room.

Matt looked around the room, his dark blue eyes confused. "Dad?

Jim looked like he was going to faint. "That was the... I don't even know. I don't think I want to know. how...? What..? I... I'll go get Dr. Hisuku. She needs to see this." He wove through the tangled knot of people, all cramming themselves around the beds, explaining and exclaiming. Cody's mother and grandfather moved past the cluster around Matt to Cody.

"Mama. Grandpa. I'm sorry I worried you." he said, cuddling Upamon.

"Don't be." his mother said, brushing away tears of her own. "I thought I'd lost you." She embraced him.

Chaos reigned.

They traded hugs and handclasps, and over and over and over again various people whispered or thought, _Thank the Light. Thank 're ok. They're ok. They're ok._

As T.K leaned over the bed to let Matt hug him, his brother whispered. "What happened? As soon as there's a moment, you tell me what happened. How long-" but T.K was pulled away as Tai embraced his best friend.

"You did it?" Cody asked the room at large. Though the adults did not understand, the children, and the digimon (unhappily playing stuffed) did.

It was Kari who answered, from where she'd been stroking the tiny white YukimiBotamon that cuddled into her arms.

"Yes."

Cody smiled.

Jim returned with the head doctor, who looked at everyone. "There aren't supposed to be this many visitors." She said, not harshly, but with a note of warning in her voice.

Jim looked at the Digidestined. "Maybe you should, uh, find some food." he said, then looked at Sora. " While they do, I'll see about your leg." He held out a shiny pair of crutches, which Sora took.

T.K. felt the chain in his pocket.

"Hey, Kari?" he asked. " Why don't we go to the cafeteria and get burgers for everyone?"

She looked at him strangely. "Don't you want to stay here, with Matt?'

"I.. I want to talk to you."

She nodded, and they split off from the group that was (unhappily) heading down to a waiting room.

* * *

><p>They stopped in front of the stairwell, and T.K. took a deep breath.<p>

"I went to the Dark Ocean." He said in a rush.

"What?" Kari asked, her free hand flying up to her mouth.

He nodded. "I thought.. I lost hope. When I crashed, I blacked out, and the last thing I saw was.. your light, going out. I thought that we'd lost. that it was over. When I woke up... I was in the dark Ocean, and I didn't even care. Because I'd lost everyone I care about. because... because I thought you were dead." He was shaking. Even remembering hurt.

Kari reached out, touched his arm. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault! And. It was you who got me out."

Kari titled her head.

T.k. reached into his pocket. "I don't know how. But I found this, and... and it helped. Without it, I don't think I would have gotten out of the Dark Ocean.. it... It gave me hope, again. And then, Devimon said that it was me, that I really was the small one. But it was both of us. It was your Bright Power that saved me." He held out his hand, and dangling from it, the Crest of Light.

Kari gave a little gasp and took the chain.

"Thank you." she whispered. It was all she could say. She felt the cord settle into its old place, the familiar weight of the pendant.

They descended the stairwell.

"When I thought you were gone- it was- I felt..." T.K. began.

Kari nodded. "I know. When Ken attacked, when I thought _you_ were gone, and because of me- I... I care about you, T.K. You're my... my best friend."

YukimiBotamon cheeped.

"And you're mine." T.K smiled, swiping a hand over his eyes.

And suddenly Kari turned, leaned in, and kissed him on the cheek. GHer eyes danced as she tugged at his sleeve.

"Come on, let's get that food."

T.K. laughed, letting her pull him along.

Everything was all right.

All Light.

As they neared the cafeteria, Kari stopped. " Do you hear that?"

T.K. did.

It was faint, not even a whisper, just a thought in his own mind, with the palest glimmer of light. The Voice.

"_Hope Child, Light Child," _It was fading away, almost completely gone, just clinging to life-

"_You chose your path well."_

* * *

><p><strong>*bows head* That's it. That's the end. I'm kinda sorta totally in tears right now. This project has been my baby for over a year now. It's seen me- you've seen me- through some very hard times- and through good ones. I started it as a terrified, lonely first semester freshman. And now... everything is so changed. I am glad I got to change with you along for the ride. this has been just a wonderful experience, writing this. I really had to dive into my own past, my own emotions to write this. It was good for me.<strong>

**Now I'm not done with this "universe" I have several companion fics to write and post, and I'll be keeping my mind open to ideas for more full length stories. Don't think that I'm going anywhere! I hope you'll check out my future works.**

**Again, thank you to all my readers. Please leave a review- how did you like how I wrapped things up? Did you have a favorite line? A favorite image? How did you like the story over all? Did I do justice to your favorite characters? I know the digimon weren't really in this chapter... but other than that?**

**I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.**

**See you soon!**

**Love, Hedgi.**


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